Latest news with #LinuxFoundation
Hans India
2 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
CNCF Celebrates India's Cloud Native Community Growth, Recognizing a Kubestronaut Milestone
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which builds sustainable ecosystems for cloud native software, today announced continued momentum for its Kubestronaut and Golden Kubestronaut programs in India. As software development shifts with cloud native becoming widespread and AI reshaping workloads, embracing these changes can set organizations ahead of the curve. The Linux Foundation's 2025 State of Tech Talent Report found a growing net hiring effect from AI adoption, rising from +18% in 2024 to +23% projected in 2026. Adopting a mindset of continuous learning and upskilling provides an opportunity for software engineers and developers with the confidence and skills to succeed. 'India has quickly become one of the most vibrant and engaged regions in the cloud native ecosystem, and the country's Kubestronaut program achievements are a reflection of that momentum,' said Chris Aniszczyk, CTO, CNCF. 'It's inspiring to see so many developers in India not only pursuing certification but using it as a launchpad for leadership, community contribution, and career growth. We're proud to support this next generation of cloud native champions.' Since launching the Kubestronaut program in April 2024, CNCF has recognized roughly 2,000 Kubestronauts across 97 countries. India accounts for 180 Kubestronauts, making it the country with the highest number of people who have successfully passed certification requirements. The United States and Germany follow closely behind in the second and third highest number of Kubestronauts, respectively. 'The cloud native community in India continues to impress with its dedication to learning and collaboration,' said Christophe Sauthier, cloud native training and certification lead at CNCF. 'Programs like Kubestronaut and Golden Kubestronaut are resonating in this region because they reflect the values of this community: curiosity, persistence, and a desire to grow together within the cloud native ecosystem.' Golden Kubestronauts demonstrate exceptional commitment to cloud native learning by completing all 14 CNCF certifications along with the Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) certification. Since its launch in April, the program has gained steady traction in Asia, with roughly 30% of the 54 Golden Kubestronauts hailing from the region, with two being from India. Golden Kubestronauts are celebrated with exclusive branded gear, such as a commemorative backpack and beanie, a ThriveOne subscription for ongoing professional development, and discounts on CNCF certifications. Additional benefits include a complimentary annual ticket to a Kubernetes Community Days (KCD) of their choice, a lifetime 50% off KubeCon + CloudNativeCon registration, and a featured profile on the Kubestronaut website. Beyond honoring individual achievement, the Kubestronaut and Golden Kubestronaut programs reinforce CNCF's commitment to building a robust certification ecosystem and advancing the broader cloud native community. By encouraging professionals to complete the full suite of CNCF certifications, these initiatives help grow the pool of certified practitioners, boost participation in CNCF training and events, and solidify CNCF's position as the leading authority in cloud native education.
Techday NZ
30-07-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
Linux Foundation adopts AGNTCY to standardise agentic AI
The Linux Foundation has announced that it is welcoming the AGNTCY project, an open source initiative aimed at standardising foundational infrastructure for open multi-agent artificial intelligence (AI) systems. AGNTCY delivers core components required for discovery, secure messaging, and cross-platform collaboration among AI agents that originate from different companies and frameworks. The project has the backing of industry players including Cisco, Dell Technologies, Google Cloud, Oracle, and Red Hat, all of whom have joined as formative members under the Linux Foundation's open governance. Originally released as open source by Cisco in March 2025 with collaboration from LangChain and Galileo, AGNTCY now includes support from over 75 companies. Its infrastructure forms the basis for the so-called 'Internet of Agents' - an environment where AI agents from diverse origins are able to communicate, collaborate, and be discovered regardless of vendor or execution environment. The increasing adoption of AI agents across industries has led to concerns about fragmentation and the formation of closed silos, constraining agents' ability to communicate across platforms securely and efficiently. AGNTCY's infrastructure aims to address these issues by standardising secure identity, robust messaging, and comprehensive observability. This allows organisations and developers to manage AI agents with improved transparency, performance, and trust. Compatibility is a focus for AGNTCY, which is interoperable with the Agent2Agent (A2A) project, also part of the Linux Foundation, as well as Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP). The project supports agent discovery through AGNTCY directories, enables observable environments using AGNTCY's software development kits (SDKs), and utilises the Secure Low Latency Interactive Messaging (SLIM) protocol for secure message transport. "The AGNTCY project lays groundwork for secure, interoperable collaboration among autonomous agents," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. "We are pleased to welcome the AGNTCY project to the Linux Foundation to ensure its infrastructure remains open, neutral, and community-driven." The AGNTCY project's infrastructure offers several key functions for multi-agent environments. Agent discovery is facilitated using the Open Agent Schema Framework (OASF), allowing agents to identify and understand each other's capabilities. Agent identity is supported via cryptographically verifiable processes to ensure secure activity across organisational boundaries. The agent messaging component supports various communication modes, including human-in-the-loop and quantum-safe options via the SLIM protocol. Observability functionalities provide evaluation and debugging across complex, multi-vendor workflows. "Building the foundational infrastructure for the Internet of Agents requires community ownership, not vendor control," said Vijoy Pandey, general manager and senior vice president of Outshift by Cisco. "The Linux Foundation ensures this critical infrastructure remains neutral and accessible to everyone building multi-agent systems." The project is underpinned by real-world applications, including AI-driven continuous integration and deployment pipelines, multi-agent IT operations, and the automation of telecom networks. This underlines the diversity of use cases benefitting from AGNTCY's open source approach. Various leaders and members have shared their perspective on the announcement: "Interoperability is central to Dell's agentic AI vision. The ability of agents to work together empowers enterprises to reap the full value of AI. Additionally, interworking technologies must accommodate agents wherever they are deployed whether in public clouds, private data centres, the edge or on devices. Dell is working hand-in-hand with industry leaders to establish open standards for agentic interoperability. Being a formative member of the Linux Foundation's AGNTCY project is one such step towards fulfilling the promise of agentic AI." – John Roese, global CTO and chief AI officer, Dell Technologies. "We've been building AGNTCY's evaluation and observability components from day one because reliable Agents cannot scale without purpose-built monitoring. Moving all components of AGNTCY to the Linux Foundation ensures these tools serve the entire ecosystem, not just our customers. As a founding member of AGNTCY, we're eager to see neutral governance accelerate adoption of standards we know enterprises need for production agent deployments." – Yash Sheth, co-founder, Galileo. "Open, community-driven standards are essential for creating a diverse, interoperable agentic AI ecosystem. We're pleased that Cisco is moving AGNTCY to the Linux Foundation, where it will be neutrally governed alongside the Agent2Agent protocol to advance powerful, collaborative agent systems for the industry." – Rao Surapaneni, vice president, business applications platform, Google Cloud. "Enterprise customers need agent infrastructure they can trust for mission-critical workloads. We welcome AGNTCY's move to the Linux Foundation and are proud to be a formative member of this project. A tight control over data security and governance helps discovery, identity, and observability components work reliably across the entire enterprise technology stack, not just specific vendor ecosystems." – Roger Barga, senior vice president, AI & ML, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. "Our customers and partners, as well as the open source communities we work with, are actively exploring agentic capabilities to bring the inferencing benefits of vLLM and llm-d to their applications. Red Hat welcomes AGNTCY's move to the Linux Foundation and we look forward to working with the community to help bring open, agnostic governance to the agentic AI ecosystem." – Steve Watt, vice president and distinguished engineer, Office of the CTO, Red Hat. Follow us on: Share on:
Arabian Post
30-06-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
Google Entrusts A2A AI Framework to Linux Foundation
Google has transferred ownership of its Agent2Agent protocol—including its specification, developer SDKs and tooling—to the Linux Foundation, ushering in a new era of open, vendor-neutral collaboration on AI agent interoperability. Announced on 23 June at the Open Source Summit North America, the move positions more than 100 organisations, including AWS, Cisco, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and ServiceNow, to jointly steward and evolve the protocol under a neutral governance framework. A2A, first introduced by Google in April 2025, establishes an open standard enabling autonomous AI agents to discover peers, exchange secure information and coordinate multi-step tasks across different platforms. Firms such as AWS and Cisco have already integrated or plan to integrate A2A into key components like directory services, identity, messaging and observability frameworks. Google's motivation for migrating A2A to the Linux Foundation stems from concerns over fragmentation and vendor lock-in in enterprise AI ecosystems. A neutral, open-governance structure, the announcement explains, will accelerate adoption, encourage wider contributions and maintain long-term stewardship of the protocol. ADVERTISEMENT Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin emphasised the importance of neutrality, stating that hosting A2A ensures long-term collaboration and unbiased governance necessary to unlock agent‑to‑agent productivity. Google Cloud's Rao Surapaneni further described A2A as a 'vital open standard' that enables interoperable AI frameworks across platforms. The initiative has drawn support from major tech providers. AWS's Swami Sivasubramanian pledged contributions to the protocol and its agentic ecosystem, while Cisco's Vijoy Pandey underlined A2A's role in building an 'interoperable Internet of Agents' via integrations with open-source components. Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and ServiceNow echoed these endorsements, with commitments to incorporate the protocol within their enterprise-grade AI offerings. The migration also signals a broader effort within the AI community to embrace open standards. While organisations such as Anthropic with its Model Context Protocol focus on connecting agents to tools and data, A2A complements by enabling agent-to-agent coordination. Mike Smith of Google noted at the summit that the protocol has been revised to allow flexible extensions and improved agent identity frameworks. Analysts predict that establishing robust standards for AI agent interoperability could pave the way for more complex, multi-agent workflows in enterprise systems. A report from Futurum Group forecasts that agent-driven automation could generate around $6 trillion of economic value by 2028, though experts caution governance and security frameworks must evolve in parallel. Academic scrutiny, however, highlights lingering security and privacy concerns. A May 2025 paper on arXiv emphasised the need for enhancements such as short‑lived tokens, consent‑driven exchanges, and tighter control mechanisms to safeguard sensitive data flows between agents. Another study from April provided a comprehensive analysis of secure implementations, recommending proactive threat modelling and structured identity governance to fortify A2A deployments. Under the Linux Foundation, A2A will benefit from established intellectual property frameworks, transparent technical working groups and community-driven decision processes, according to the Linux Foundation's press materials. The governance roadmap includes exploring standards around trustworthy identity, delegated authority, policy controls and reputational attributes that could underpin a mature, interoperable ecosystem. The protocol's practical-ready toolkit, including Python and TypeScript implementations, has already been shared via GitHub to accelerate developer engagement. The open-source community is invited to contribute, with growing participation from systems integrators, enterprise vendors and independent developers. Enterprise adoption is expected to advance steadily as major cloud and systems providers thread A2A into their AI platforms. Use cases include orchestrating task-specific agents—for example, a procurement assistant triggering financial audit agents, or compliance bots coordinating with legal review agents—without proprietary lock‑in. Nonetheless, challenges remain. Multi-stakeholder governance could slow decision cycles, and competing priorities may hamper swift feature roll-out. Yet proponents argue that the foundational benefits of open, interoperable agent ecosystems outweigh such trade‑offs in the long term. The real test will come in adoption: how effectively Linux Foundation‑hosted governance can shepherd A2A from ambitious standard to enterprise‑grade infrastructure underpinning next‑gen AI workflows.
Forbes
26-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Key Tech Firms Unite As Google Donates A2A To Linux Foundation
Neurons Major technology vendors are converging around a single protocol for artificial intelligence agent communication, potentially ending the fragmentation that has limited the deployment of enterprise AI. Google's donation of its Agent2Agent protocol to the Linux Foundation brings together Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and ServiceNow as foundational members of a new standardization effort. The move addresses a fundamental challenge facing enterprise technology leaders: how to deploy AI agents that can work together across different platforms without requiring custom integrations for each vendor relationship. Current enterprise AI implementations often create isolated systems that cannot share information or coordinate tasks, limiting the automation potential that drives AI investment decisions. Technical Foundation Enables Cross-Platform Agent Communication The a2a protocol operates as a communication layer that allows AI agents to discover each other's capabilities, exchange information securely and coordinate complex tasks regardless of their underlying technology stack. The system uses JSON-RPC 2.0 over HTTP for standardized communication, with server-sent events enabling real-time streaming interactions between agents. Agent discovery occurs through 'Agent Cards,' which serve as digital business cards that contain capability descriptions and connection information. When an agent needs to complete a task requiring specialized expertise, it can query available agents, review their capabilities and establish secure communication channels without human intervention. The protocol supports both synchronous request-response patterns and asynchronous workflows, accommodating enterprise scenarios where tasks may require human approval or extend across multiple business days. Authentication mechanisms ensure that only authorized agents can access specific capabilities while maintaining audit trails for compliance requirements. Amazon Web Services has already demonstrated practical implementation by creating tools that expose Bedrock agents through a2a endpoints. This enables enterprises using AWS infrastructure to make their AI agents accessible to agents running on other platforms, thereby creating the interoperability that enterprise architectures require. Market Convergence Accelerates Standards Adoption The Linux Foundation announcement represents the consolidation of previously competing approaches to agent interoperability. More than 100 technology companies now support the a2a protocol, expanding from the initial 50 partners when Google first launched the specification in April. Microsoft has integrated a2a support into Azure AI Foundry and enabled a2a agent invocation through Copilot Studio. This integration allows enterprises already committed to Microsoft's AI toolchain to participate in multi-vendor agent workflows without replacing existing investments. Salesforce contributed the Agent Card concept that became central to a2a's capability discovery mechanism. The company positions agent interoperability as essential for reaching what it terms 'Level 4 multi-agent orchestration,' where specialized agents collaborate across enterprise systems. The convergence creates particular implications for Cisco's AGNTCY initiative, which has been developing infrastructure for what it calls the 'Internet of Agents'. Rather than competing with a2a, Cisco is integrating a2a support directly into AGNTCY's core components including the Directory, Identity, SLIM Messaging and Observability frameworks. This approach transforms AGNTCY from a potential competing standard into complementary infrastructure that enhances a2a's capabilities. Strategic Implications for Technology Decision Makers The Linux Foundation's governance model offers vendor neutrality, addressing enterprise concerns about being locked into proprietary ecosystems. Technology leaders can invest in a2a implementations with confidence that the protocol will evolve through community input rather than single-vendor control. Standardization creates opportunities for enterprises to implement modular AI strategies, where specialized agents from different vendors can collaborate on complex workflows. For example, a customer service workflow might combine Salesforce agents for CRM interactions, ServiceNow agents for incident management and AWS agents for data analysis, all coordinating through a2a protocols. However, successful implementation requires careful architectural planning. Enterprises need to establish agent governance frameworks, implement monitoring capabilities and develop policies for inter-agent data sharing before deploying production systems. The protocol provides the technical foundation, but organizational readiness determines success. Technology leaders should evaluate their current integration capabilities and security postures before committing to multi-agent architectures. While a2a reduces technical barriers to agent interoperability, it does not eliminate the need for robust data governance, identity management and compliance frameworks that enterprise AI deployments require.
Channel Post MEA
24-06-2025
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
UAE's Technology Innovation Institute Joins OpenSTX Foundation
The Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research arm of the Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), today announced its founding membership in the newly launched OpenSTX Foundation, a global initiative hosted by the Linux Foundation. The OpenSTX Foundation aims to establish a vendor-neutral, open industry standard for Synchronous Transmissions (STX), a transformative wireless protocol designed to deliver ultra-reliable, secure, and energy-efficient communications for industrial applications. The OpenSTX Foundation brings together a coalition of global academic and industry leaders to standardize next-generation STX protocols. These protocols enable multiple devices to transmit simultaneously with precise synchronization, significantly improving network reliability, reducing latency, and optimizing power usage. Such capabilities are essential for emerging applications in industrial IoT, smart cities, real-time asset tracking, and emergency response systems. The initiative holds particular promise for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, where the rapid growth of industrial and smart infrastructure projects demands resilient and scalable wireless systems. Michael Baddeley, Principal Researcher at TII and Chairperson of the OpenSTX Foundation, said: 'When launching the OpenSTX Foundation, we were looking for a platform that could support both rigorous technical collaboration and global inclusivity. The Linux Foundation gave us exactly that—a proven framework for open, vendor-neutral standards that empowers contributors across academia, startups, and global enterprises. It's the right foundation for scaling STX into an industrial-grade wireless standard.' The Foundation's steering committee brings contributors from Graz University of Technology, Imperial College London, University of Trento, SKF CNEA, RedNodeLabs, Fly4Future, and Technische Universität Darmstadt, combining deep expertise from both academia and industry. TII's involvement reinforces its mission to drive innovations and solidify Abu Dhabi's position as a global hub and center of excellence for technological development. The OpenSTX Foundation welcomes industry players, researchers, and engineers to participate in shaping the future of wireless communications.
