Left Brain Blogging With Cloudsmith

Let's face it. I'm pretty much a right brained individual. Yes I can manage a P&L and execute on the more analytical facets of my life but at the end of the day, I'm a passionate creator and innovator, very right-brain dominant.  So it was a pleasant surprise that I found myself enjoying my conversation with Mitch Sonies, the founder of  Cloudsmith.

This is a really cool idea with loads of potential. Now let me see if I can get this right.  Cloudsmith enables a software engineer to publish any configuration of software components to meet a specific technical or business need.  In essence these are virtual distros - a term that Mitch has coined after Linux Distros (from WikiPedia):

A Linux distribution, often simply distribution or distro, is a member of the LinuxUnix-like operating systems comprising the Linux kernel, the non-kernel parts of the GNU operating system, and assorted other software.

A virtual distro , is published set of components (a configuration) that a Software Engineer has compilied.  In essence, its the Meta IP around the technical solution he or she has created to solve a particular business problem.  These virtual distributions (distros) are shareable via cloudsmith and they can be shared in the Open Source or private domains. 

This is huge!  The reason I say that is for the longest time there have been efforts to share Technical IP at the configuration level in such a way as the cream of these efforts (read, best practices) rises to the top.  This is the first time I think someone has cracked the code on this effort.

So, go and check out Cloudsmith but beware, Mitch is totally focused on building a repository of distros that are shareable and useable so the current cloudsmith site is quite focused on the Software Engineering community.  You wont find business value proposition messaging or business model discussions there yet!

Comments

[Chris]

Hi Steve,

I've been hinting at some of the potential business impact of Cloudsmith in my own blog, see for example: http://chrishornat.blogspot.com/2007/09/sharing-best-and-most-valuable-software.html
and related entries with the Cloudsmith label.

Adoption is building, and we believe some interesting business propositions are going to emerge pretty quickly in consequence.

best
Chris

[Steve Mann]

Thanx Chris... I will check them out. Yes, I see a number of very cool business applications for Cloudsmith.

S