A few days back, we reported how Oregon University's Open Source Lab was facing closure after a funding deficit threatened its existence, making them ask for support from the FOSS community and corporate sponsors.
Thankfully, the call for support worked, paving the way for the OSUOSL to look ahead, into what the future holds for them.
What's Happening: Focusing on two primary objectives, the OSUOSL is looking to build a stable financial backbone that keeps it self-sufficient beyond 2025. They aim to achieve this by pushing for annualized pledges, new avenues for a constant revenue stream, and other similar fund-raising measures.
The OSUOSL is also searching for a new location as their current data center is over 20 years old, with a focus on replacing the aging hardware with a few generations old, power-efficient, refurbished server hardware. This would be in line with their sustainable infrastructure strategy.
As for the location, they want a place that can accommodate 13–20 racks and is ideally situated between Eugene and Portland in the state of Oregon, with a low-cost/free hosting solution to keep expenses in check.
What's Next: With these prerequisites in place, the OSUOSL intends to expand their student program, strengthen their managed services portfolio for open source projects, introduce modern tooling like Kubernetes and Terraform, and encourage more community volunteers to actively contribute.
Wrapping up the announcement, Lance Albertson, the Director of OSUOSL, added that:
The recent encouragement has been fantastic. Now, help us build a truly sustainable foundation. Securing a cost-effective data center and robust multi-year financial partnerships are the critical next steps for the OSL’s future.
Thank you for your continued belief in the OSL!
💬 It’s great to see that the OSUOSL received the support it needed, and I’m excited to see how they build on it. What about you?
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