Wakefield, MA, March 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- [watch "Apache at 19" promo at https://youtu.be/Fqk_rlKiVIs ]

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of more than 350 Open Source projects and initiatives, announced today its 19th Anniversary, and its meritocratic, community-driven process known as "The Apache Way" as the key to its success.

The world's largest Open Source foundation is home to dozens of freely-available (no cost), enterprise-grade Apache projects that serve as the backbone for some of the most visible and widely used applications in Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning, Big Data, Build Management, Cloud Computing, Content Management, DevOps, IoT and Edge Computing, Mobile, Servers, and Web Frameworks, among many other categories. Examples of the breadth of applications that are "Powered by Apache" include:

• 80M+ Websites that use the Apache HTTP Server;
• the 2.6-terabyte, Pulitzer Prize-winning Panama Papers investigation;
• system-wide information management at the US Federal Aviation Administration;
• 500+B daily event capture each day at Netflix;
• mobile application development unification across Android/Blackberry/iOS/Ubuntu/Windows/Windows Phone/OS X platforms;
• request processing at Facebook’s 300-petabyte data warehouse;
• powering clouds for Apple, Disney, Huawei, Tata, and countless others; and
• accessing content across multi-mission, multi-instrument science data systems at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"As we celebrate 19 years of Open Source collaboration, we have a lot to be thankful for at the ASF," said ASF Chairman Phil Steitz. "First, the many volunteers who contribute to our projects. Some have been contributing continuously since inception and many more join us every year. We now have 6,618 committers, with 504 added just in the last year. Second, we are fortunate to have the constant inflow of new people and communities keeping the ASF on the cutting edge of new technologies. Finally, we receive generous support from 48 corporate sponsors and thousands of individual donors. As we approach the end of our 'teenage' years, the ASF stands as a vibrant, healthy, leading organization committed to our mission of providing software for the public good by supporting collaborative, open development communities."

Highlights of the Apache community's successes over the past 12 months include:

• continued guardianship of 190M+ lines of code in the Apache repositories;
• 9M+ source code downloads from Apache mirrors (excl. convenience binaries);
• 3,255 Committers changed 71,186,324 lines of code over 225,500 commits;
• 194 Top-Level Project committees managing 319 projects;
• 20 new Top-Level Projects graduated from the Apache Incubator;
• 54 podlings currently undergoing development in the Apache Incubator;
• 21,893 authors sent 1,771,557 emails on 662,661 topics across 1,131 mailing lists;
• Web requests received from every Internet-connected country on the planet; and
• 35M page views per week across apache.org.

"The Apache Software Foundation’s extraordinary contribution to the economic refactoring of software stacks seems to be gaining more momentum with every passing year," wrote Merv Adrian, Analyst and Research Vice President at Gartner. "...the role of the ASF remains so important: by providing a vehicle for developers to work ‘in the open,’ while keeping the playing field level in many respects, the ASF has enabled the rapid development and pervasive spread of key layers that everyone benefits from." https://itmarketstrategy.com/2018/03/25/open-for-business-at-the-asf/

At the heart of the ASF is its people: Apache software development and project leadership is executed entirely by volunteers. The ASF Board and officers are all volunteers. The dedication of 706 individual ASF Members and thousands of committed volunteers helps make a difference to the lives of billions by ensuring that Apache software remains accessible to all, and always 100% free of charge. Their allegiance is testament to the slogan of "Community Over Code" often paired with The Apache Way that ensures the ASF delivers on its mission of providing Open Source software for the public good.

As a United States private, 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charitable organization, the ASF relies on charitable donations to advance the future of open development, and is sustained by through tax-deductible contributions from generous corporations, foundations, and individuals. Their contributions help offset day-to-day operating expenses that include bandwidth, connectivity, servers, hardware, legal counsel, accounting services, trademark protection, public relations, marketing, and related support staff. As a very lean operation, the ASF spends 10% or less on overhead.

ASF Sponsors include: PLATINUM –Cloudera, Comcast, Facebook, Google, LeaseWeb, Microsoft, Oath, Pineapple Fund; GOLD –ARM, Bloomberg, Hortonworks, Huawei, IBM, ODPi, Pivotal; SILVER –Aetna, Alibaba Cloud Computing, Budget Direct, Capital One, Cash Store, Cerner, Inspur, iSIGMA, Private Internet Access, Red Hat, Serenata Flowers, Target, Union Investment, and Wandisco; BRONZE –7 Binary Options, Airport Rentals, The Blog Starter, Bookmakers, Casino2k, Compare Forex Brokers, HostChecka.com, HostingAdvice.com, HostPapa Web Hosting, The Linux Foundation, Mobile Slots, SCAMS.info, Spotify, Talend, Travel Ticker Hotels, Twitter, Web Hosting Secret Revealed, Wise Buyer.

In addition, the ASF recently announced its new Targeted Sponsors, who provide the Foundation with contributions for specific activities or programs, such as donating cloud services, funding a project hackathon, providing legal services, offering a member benefit, underwriting expenses for ApacheCon, or something entirely new. It’s the Apache way of recognizing the sponsors that we rely on every day outside of and often in addition to funding our general operations. ASF Targeted Sponsors include: PLATINUM –Microsoft, Oath, OSU Open Source Labs, Sonatype; GOLD –Atlassian, The CrytpoFund, Datadog, PhoenixNAP; SILVER –Amazon Web Services, HotWax Systems, Quenda, Rackspace; BRONZE –Assembla, Bintray, Education Networks of America, Google, Hopsie, No-IP, PagerDuty, Sonic.net, SURFnet, Virtru.

"For Airport Rentals, the Apache Way is a way of life. The pillars of collaborative decision making and granting everyone an equal voice are integral to the ethos of the company. Giving everyone a chance to share ideas, craft plans and pioneer initiatives has allowed Airport Rentals to remain agile and creative in a field which demands constant improvement. Without these cornerstones, the company would not be in the position it is today."
–Thomas Schmider, SEO Marketing Executive at Airport Rentals

"Auto & General is proud to have now supported the Apache foundation for many years. We're big believers in Open Source software, and the work Apache does, and thank all involved for their tireless work over the last 19 years."
–Paul Malt, Chief Information Officer at Auto & General

"The Apache Way gives every developer the opportunity to provide leadership through their contributions to the community. We're proud that the Apache community has recognized the contributions of our developers and asked them to become committers and PMC members."
–Kevin Fleming, Head of Open Source Community Engagement at Bloomberg

"My computer science experience started with Apache HTTP Server a long time ago, just for fun. Then I become System Administrator and now Chief Information Officer. ASF knowledge guided for more than 10 years and is one of the reasons of my personal success. Keep Going!"
–Claudio Gianolla, CIO at Casino2k.com

"The Apache Software Foundation is moving open source forward on many fronts. We especially value its focus on building sustainable communities that ensure the continuing innovation and development of important projects."
–Jan van Doorn, Fellow at Comcast, and Apache Traffic Control (incubating) committer

"Congratulations to the Apache Software Foundation on their 19 year anniversary of helping to make critical open source projects possible. Today, most companies are using software from Apache projects. The Internet (and Leaseweb's global cloud platforms) would not be possible without them. Thank you for your amazing work!"
–Robert van der Meulen, Product Strategy Lead at Leaseweb

"Many of our customers rely upon ASF for projects on Microsoft Azure. The Apache Way helps ensure that our engineers can work with them, our partners and the ecosystem at large efficiently and at scale."
–John Gossman, Lead Architect at Microsoft

"Teams at Oath actively contribute to Apache projects, such as Traffic Server, Hadoop, and Storm, and are helping incubate new projects like Druid, Omid, and Pulsar. We're proud to be part of some of the world's most important open source projects. Inspired by the Apache Way, we know that all code gets better when we work together to solve challenging engineering problems."
–Gil Yehuda, Senior Director of Open Source at Oath

"We celebrate the Apache Software Foundation and its community development for nearly two decades. ODPi has always strived to build upon the innovative work of the ASF to help create a thriving and expanding Big Data ecosystem built around the success of Apache Hadoop, Apache Bigtop, Apache Atlas and many others. We believe our focus on the downstream Hadoop ecosystem carries on the work of the ASF and helps oxygenate the big data market and stimulate growth."