openQRM 3.5 released, but Qlusters bids it adieu

A posting on SourceForge.net states that Qlusters has released openQRM 3.5 to the open source community. The 3.5 release succeeds release 3.1.4 and includes a set of new features based on input from various datacenters and test/dev labs.

And while a new release of a software solution is usually quite interesting, what is catching most people’s attention is the rest of the announcement.

In addition to making 3.5 available for download, Qlusters announced at the same time that they are saying goodbye to the open source project. In spite of the project being downloaded more than 120,000 times, Qlusters has decided to part ways and leave the ongoing development of openQRM in the hands of the open source community.

Matt Rechenburg, the openQRM project manager, will continue to actively lead the project. However, without Qlusters, there is no commercial vendor standing behind the project to back it up. However, if they want to, the open source community can certainly continue with the project. If there is enough involvement and interest in the solution, perhaps another vendor will swoop in to support it.

It still isn’t clear as to why Qlusters left the project. The company just received $10 million in VC funding last July, but so far haven’t said anything about what they plan to do going forward.

Matt Aslett from the 451 Group has an interesting way of looking at things:

No word yet from Qlusters on its future direction. However, it is not surprising to see changes at the company. It has been particularly quiet since former CTO William Hurley left to become chief open source strategy architect at BMC. In fact, I was more surprised to see an announcement regarding Qlusters than I was the fact that it is getting out of openQRM development.

Qlusters did say that they would like to wish the openQRM project community, and Matt Rechenburg, a future of prosperity and continued success.