Openbravo Forge achieves growth milestone: 10k Developers

I just noticed that Openbravo Forge, the collaborative development environment from Openbravo, has reached the 10 thousand developer mark!   When I last blogged about it in August 2009, Openbravo Forge had 6997 developers and 139 projects.  Now we are at 10000 developers, working together on over 300 ERP-related projects!

This steady growth demonstrates what an open source community can do when a best-in-class project like Openbravo ERP is paired with a robust collaboration tool like Openbravo Forge. 

Note that I am using the term "developer" in a general sense.   Developing world class web-based ERP solutions for SMB requires a wide range of talent.  So in addition to ERP application developers, Openbravo Forge users  include ERP functional experts, System Architects, QA analysts, User Experience experts, and people involved in documentation, language translation, localization, and more.   If you have an interest in ERP, check out Openbravo Forge to see what all of the excitement is about!  Hint: it may have a little bit to do with collaboration and innovation...  :)

Continued growth of Openbravo Exchange

We are pleased to announce that our friends from Datafashion  have just published a new developer-oriented module called the Interceptor Filter.  This module, which appears in Openbravo Exchange's growing Tools section, provides an easy way to intercept a user command, and attach custom logic to it without changing the core source code.

In related Openbravo Exchange news, the philosophy at Openbravo is to grow the Exchange organically and at high quality from the very beginning.  We want Openbravo Exchange to be a place that people can go to with confidence to find high quality, valuable extensions modules that they can easily install and combine to meet their unique needs.  To ensure that all Exchange modules install and uninstall correctly as we deliver monthly maintenance packs, we are testing all of them on a continuous integration basis per this defined process, which uses the Selenium toolset described in this recent recorded webinar.

So, if you don't find what you are looking for in Openbravo ERP, please remember to check out Openbravo Exchange.  New native Openbravo modules are being added all the time, and we are working hard to apply the latest technology and best-in-class processes to help assure high quality.

Openbravo expands Cloud support with native Ubuntu 9.10 package

As announced in this recent blog post, Openbravo has released a native Openbravo ERP package for Ubuntu 9.10, which brings an important new capability to Openbravo users: full support on the Amazon Cloud.    Here are the official AMI (Amazon Machine Image) IDs for Ubuntu 9.10.  If you are new to Amazon Web Services, Ubuntu's EC2 Starter's Guide will get you started with instructions on how to create an account and start and manage a new instance.

With the native Ubuntu 9.10 package, Openbravo is now providing another fully-supported, standard way to deploy to the cloud (in addition to our cloud appliance)--just start with the 9.10 AMI and install the Openbravo Ubuntu package, as usual.   This is an ideal option for customers of all sizes who appreciate the flexibility, security, and wide range of applications available for easy installation on Ubuntu Server, combined with the benefits of deploying Openbravo ERP on the public Amazon Cloud, which include:

• freedom from the cost and hassle of acquiring and managing your own physical hardware
• low monthly billing, with the ability to incrementally increase the computer resources you pay for, as you need them
• secure, browser access to Openbravo ERP from anywhere in the world
• ability to achieve efficient, off-site backup

WIth Openbravo' Ubuntu 9.10 package, larger organizations and SaaS providers seeking to deploy Openbravo ERP  on a private cloud behind their own firewall can do so with the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud--which is compatible with the Amazon public cloud, enabling easy migration and the ability to "burst" to the public cloud during peak periods as needed.

Cloud computing is growing steadily, and recent surveys suggest that further acceleration in cloud adoption is on the horizon.  Cloud computing, Ubuntu, and Openbravo ERP are all now past the "early adopter" stage, and together provide an ideal combination for many SMBs.  Openbravo customers are increasingly deploying on the cloud, and we at Openbravo use the Amazon EC2 Cloud extensively in our own IT infrastructure.  We have extensive real world experience with it, and can attest to the benefits.  Now is a great time to get started with Openbravo ERP, Ubuntu, and the Amazon Cloud!