Rockstor

Speaker: Suman Chakravartula

Abstract

Rockstor (http://rockstor.com) is an open source Personal Cloud Server. From a technology perspective, it is a web application with RESTful APIs, UI, an application hosting framework and more, packaged into a Linux distribution. Python is the core language in which the backend is written. It uses Django, DRF, ZMQ, Web sockets and a few other technologies to put together a robust and extensible file storage platform. The bird's eye view of Rockstor is that it's one of many NAS (Network Attached Storage) solutions in the market, but on closer examination, users appreciate cool features based on BTRFS, Docker and Linux in general that are implemented using Python and Javascript.

In the talk, I'll go over various components and how they are put together, how our open source community came together and continues to thrive and grow. I'll also go over how we use Python in our release management to help us release frequently and continue to develop at a good clip, with a lean team. If time permits, I'll share the details of my ongoing experience of starting an open source project and being a maintainer and community developer.

Speaker Bio

Suman is a Software Engineer, FOSS advocate and a Linux head. He has developed predominantly in Python over the years from webservices to fun little tools. He received a Bachelors degree from Eastern Michigan University and a Masters degree from Standford University, both in Computer Science. His academic focus was in AI, while in the industry he worked on projects predominantly in the Cloud Services domain. He started the Rockstor open source project in 2013 to create a solid Linux based FOSS storage platform for advanced home users and businesses. In three years, the Rockstor community has grown to attract thousands of active users all over the world with 16 code contributors and counting.