EMC Responds To Customer Demand, Make ViPR Controller Product Free

EMC has responded to customer demand by making their software-defined ViPR product available for free through an open source license. The storage product is the first software solution belonging to EMC to become an open source project. The project is also known as Project CoprHD (pronounced Copperhead).

 

Project CoprHD will be made available on GitHub for community-driven development under the Mozilla Public License (MPL 2.0). This will include all the control functionality and storage automation that separates the data and control panes for operation.

Free unrestricted EMC ScaleIO software downloads will be available for non production use along with enterprise-grade enhancements and high-performance application support. EMC says it wants to encourage all storage vendors to contribute to Project CoprHD (which shares all the same features and functionality of EMC ViPR Controller) in order to further expand the ecosystem and further embrace standard and open API’s.

EMC stated in their press release on May 5, 2015 that “customers, partners, service providers and system integrators can develop new service catalogue offerings with automated workflows to meet their customer’s specific needs.” The company (EMC) believes that building a strong developer community is crucial to the future-success of their software defined storage.

Altough both ViPR Controller and Project CoprHD will share the same core features, it’s ViPR Controller customers that will get full support and services from EMC. Meanwhile, if EMC sees any changes it likes made to Project CoprHD by the community, those changes will be fed back into ViPR.

“ViPR Controller was the perfect candidate for open source contribution. As fully transparent software focusing on storage automation, both the software and its users will benefit from community contributions. It’s an exciting time at EMC, and we’re looking forward to seeing the new ways Project CoprHD will evolve in the open source community,” said CJ Desai, President of EMC’s Emerging Technologies Division in the May 5th press release.

EMC’s decision to make ViPR available for open source contribution marks a massive shift in the company’s strategy to develop new application-centric business models.