The Apache Software Foundation is throwing its support behind Deltacloud as a top-level project, where it joins others such as  Apache Web server, Hadoop,  the Cassandra database and the Tomcat Java servlet container. Deltacloud offers a set of APIs that can be used to interact with multiple cloud service providers. The project has been in incubator status with Apache since Red Hat submitted it in 2010. Management of multiple vendors is growing ever more important in cloud computing, and Red Hat is promoting open architecture in doing so. It's including Deltacloud as part of its  CloudForms infrastructure-as-a-service platform, which is under development. In a webcast, Scott Crenshaw, Red Hat vice president and general manager, said:

There is so much innovation happening that it makes no sense to adopt a closed proprietary architecture. An open cloud architecture allows you to use IT resources from many vendors in one cloud architecture.

He also sniped at VMware's claims of openness, saying:

VMware will be open the day they open source vSphere...

Red Hat principal software engineer David Lutterkort is chairman of the Apache Deltacloud project.