Cloud programmers are probably one of the most sought after professionals in the IT industry today. Although there are many different programming languages that are used in the cloud, Python is an important open source programming language. The main reason for this is the fact that Python is used extensively in OpenStack. Leading IT companies such as Dell, Cisco, HP, and IBM to name a few, use OpenStack that has a lot of programming in Python. If you are taking a Python course online or offline, you can find jobs in these companies owing to the fact that they use OpenStack coded using Python. Here is an insight into how Python is driving the OpenStack cloud.
NASA Involvement
NASA had pioneered a project called as the Nebula cloud computer project, one of the key cloud projects at that time. The CTO and co-founder of Piston Cloud, Joshua McKenty, was also one of the key members of this project. McKenty was a part of a study that studied which programming language would be the most ideal for use in programming web applications.
McKenty said that NASA had more than three thousand web applications to maintain at that point of time. All these applications were coded in one of the 18 programming languages that were used widely then. Different frameworks were also used for those web applications. He said that from a security standpoint, maintenance of these applications were an organizational nightmare. That was the reason why McKenty started the feasibility study of the programming languages. He said that Python and Django were ideal for NASA’s web apps.
Python 2.x to 3.x Migration
At the time when the study was being conducted (2008), Python 2.x was the most stable version and NASA decided to go ahead with it. However, in the present day scenario, Python 3.x is the best version of Python as the open source programming language has also undergone a number of developments. If you have enrolled for a Python course, you will be aware of the advantages of Python 3.x. McKenty said that the Python community is very keen in migrating the OpenStack codebase from Python 2.x to 3.x. But he also added that they are aware of the challenges that this activity poses.
There are over 1.25 million lines of code in Python and it will be a tricky activity migrating from Python 2.x to 3.x. He said that this activity will be timed in such a way that it will not affect the development of Python as a programming language and the whole Python community can focus on the effort.
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