China's Sina cloud computing service has formally announced plans to join the global open source cloud computing project OpenStack.

Founded by Rackspace Hosting and NASA, OpenStack is a global collaboration of developers and cloud computing technologists producing the ubiquitous open source cloud computing platform for public and private clouds. The project aims to deliver solutions for all types of clouds by being simple to implement, massively scalable, and feature rich. The technology consists of a series of interrelated projects delivering various components for a cloud infrastructure solution.

According to Fu Qingming, general manager for Sina's research and development department, there are several reasons for Sina cloud computing's joining of OpenStack. First, OpenStack is the only open source IaaS project that is completely written in Python. Compared with projects based on C/C++ or Java, a Python project means easier installation, changes, packaging, and debugging. Second, because of its open source features, it is convenient to read the source code and debug when errors occur during deployment and upgrades. Finally, with the participation of Rackspace, OpenStack is ideal for use on public cloud servers.

In addition, by joining OpenStack, Sina cloud computing will gain more opportunities and channels to communicate and cooperate with overseas enterprises and organizations, sharing the Chinese cloud computing technologies with the entire world.