What Is the OpenAFS Technology?

The Andrew File System ("AFS") is a distributed filesystem product, pioneered at Carnegie Mellon University in cooperation with IBM in the mid-1980s, and subsequently supported and developed into a product by the Transarc Corporation (now IBM Pittsburgh Labs).

In November 2000, IBM released a version of the source code of the AFS product to the community for development and maintenance under the IBM Public License (IPL, a license approved by the Open Source Initiative). IBM called this release “OpenAFS”. The OpenAFS code is available to all individuals or organizations free of charge.

The OpenAFS Technology includes a variety of related libraries. In addition, the OpenAFS Technology includes related tools.

To enrich one's overview over OpenAFS technology and its strengths, several use cases illustrate the yet unparalleled capabilities of OpenAFS. If you can think of a use of OpenAFS technology it "saved the day" by mastering a particular challenge, please contact us with a summary of the scenario for potential inclusion into our samples of OpenAFS Technology use cases. Thank you.