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How Do Software Ecosystems Co-Evolve?

A View from OpenStack and Beyond

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Book cover Software Business (ICSOB 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 304))

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Abstract

Much research that analyzes the evolution of a software ecosystem is confined to its own boundaries. Evidence shows, however, that software ecosystems co-evolve independently with other software ecosystems. In other words, understanding the evolution of a software ecosystem requires an especially astute awareness of its competitive landscape and much consideration for other software ecosystems in related markets. A software ecosystem does not evolve in insulation but with other software ecosystems. In this research, we analyzed the OpenStack software ecosystem with a focal perspective that attempted to understand its evolution as a function of other software ecosystems. We attempted to understand and explain the evolution of OpenStack in relation to other software ecosystems in the cloud computing market. Our findings add to theoretical knowledge in software ecosystems by identifying and discussing seven different mechanisms by which software ecosystems mutually influence each other: sedimentation and embeddedness of business relationships, strategic management of the portfolio of business relationships, firms values and reputation as a partner, core technological architecture, design of the APIs, competitive replication of functionality and multi-homing. Research addressing the evolution of software ecosystem should, therefore, acknowledge that software ecosystems entangle with other software ecosystems in multiple ways, even with competing ones. A rigorous analysis of the evolution of a software ecosystem should not be solely confined to its inner boundaries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See https://www.openstack.org/community/.

  2. 2.

    See https://www.openstack.org/blog/2010/07/introducing-openstack/.

  3. 3.

    See https://gigaom.com/2012/05/24/nasa-backs-off-openstack-development/.

  4. 4.

    See https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/440932main_Nebula.pdf.

  5. 5.

    See https://www.nasa.gov/open/nebula.html.

  6. 6.

    See https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/20/why_nasa_is_dropping_Eucalyptus_from_its_nebula_cloud/.

  7. 7.

    Please note that all figures are encoded as Scalable Vector Graphics, therefore readers can freely zoom in and zoom out for a better visualization of the networks.

  8. 8.

    Complex as it involves different programming languages, different operating systems, dozens of different hardware configurations, hundreds of firms, thousands of software developers, and over one million of lines of code.

  9. 9.

    See https://ir.rackspace.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=221673&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1608440.

  10. 10.

    See https://www.rackspace.com/blog/newsarticles/rackspace-open-sources-cloud-platform.

  11. 11.

    See presentation entitled “OpenStack Co-Opetition: A View from Within” from Boris Renski (co-founder and chief marketing officer of Mirantis) presented on 04 Nov 2013 at the OpenStack summit, Hong Kong. Available on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7HXu2abNj0.

  12. 12.

    See Nancy Gohring news article at http://www.infoworld.com/article/2619192/.

  13. 13.

    Coopetitive as firms within OpenStack cooperate and compete simultaneously. See [26, p. 6] for a relational map of competition among OpenStack firms.

  14. 14.

    See https://www.redhat.com/en/about/press-releases/red-hat-and-mirantis-partner-across-products-and-services.

  15. 15.

    See https://www.openstack.org/foundation/companies/profile/hewlett-packard-enterprise.

  16. 16.

    See https://www.openstack.org/blog/2013/11/openstack-user-survey-october-2013/.

  17. 17.

    See http://www.vmware.com/products/openstack.html.

  18. 18.

    A hypervisor is either a software or a hardware solution that creates, follows and runs virtual machine instances.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Jose Teixeira

  2. TTY Pori, Tampere University of Technology, Pori, Finland

    Sami Hyrynsalmi

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  1. Jose Teixeira
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  2. Sami Hyrynsalmi
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Correspondence to Sami Hyrynsalmi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Arto Ojala

  2. Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden

    Helena Holmström Olsson

  3. University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

    Karl Werder

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Teixeira, J., Hyrynsalmi, S. (2017). How Do Software Ecosystems Co-Evolve?. In: Ojala, A., Holmström Olsson, H., Werder, K. (eds) Software Business. ICSOB 2017. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 304. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69191-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69191-6_8

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