Bonum Certa Men Certa

It Looks Like Red Hat's (IBM) Fedora Project May be 'Outsourced' to Amazon's Datacentres

Amazon datacentres in Ashburn
Amazon datacentres in Ashburn (source: Wikileaks)



Summary: In "seeking a more modern and cost effective location" for Fedora Infrastructure it seems to have been decided, privately, that Amazon (AWS) would be the new home of this project; but there's sufficient obfuscation surrounding the matter and many people seem to be totally unaware

OVERNIGHT we've spent several hours researching this and we also asked some Fedora people, who don't seem to know exactly what's going on. Surely some people higher up the corporate chain have a better and clearer idea, but they're not likely to speak about it because IBM pays their salary and there's fear of further layoffs. A lot of the finer details will be available in IRC logs (frustratingly enough, almost all the coding/code hosting was outsourced to Microsoft), but the gist of it all is this: while examining about a dozen services of the Fedora Project we've occasionally stumbled upon Amazon addresses. And then there's this:



dig copr.fedorainfracloud.org



; <<>> DiG 9.11.5-P4-5.1+deb10u1-Debian <<>> copr.fedorainfracloud.org ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 34423 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;copr.fedorainfracloud.org. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION: copr.fedorainfracloud.org. 300 IN CNAME copr-fe.aws.fedoraproject.org. copr-fe.aws.fedoraproject.org. 939 IN A 3.81.0.123


This probably merits a little bit of context. A few hours ago Fedora Infrastructure had another very major OpenShift failure (not the first such incident over the past few days). Well, it wasn't an issue until lately...

This so-called 'cloud computing' software is Red Hat's brand (with GUIs and everything) of something that's otherwise widely available as Free software but harder to use.

"Fedora Infrastructure Status: Major service disruption," said the notice, reading out the extent of the impact: "New status major: issues with openshift cluster for services: Ipsilon, Badges, Blockerbugs, Package Updates Manager, Fedora Infrastructure Cloud, COPR Build System, Documentation website, Fedora elections, Account System, Fedora Messaging Bus, Fedora Calendar, Fedora pastebin service, The Koji Buildsystem, Koschei Continuous Integration, Kerberos, Mailing Lists, Module Build Service, Mirror List, Mirror Manager, Fedora Packages App, Pagure, Fedora People, Package maintainers git repositories, Fedora Container Registry, ABRT Server, Fedora websites, Fedora Wiki, Zodbot IRC bot"

"...while examining about a dozen services of the Fedora Project we've occasionally stumbled upon Amazon addresses."And later on it said "New status good: Everything seems to be working."

"We are now operating from the new datacentre and are bringing back capacity as time allows. The known issues are documented here in our wiki," it adds. If one goes to the corresponding status page for pertinent services ("Fedora Project Datacentre Move") it is linking to this wiki page, which in turn says: "This is a page to track known issues after the Fedora Infrastructure Datacenter move in 2020 from phx2 to iad2 and rdu2."

Those are not descriptive names, as there's not even a domain name/suffix. We tried tracing back the IP addresses of these services to identity where at least some these services were being moved to. "I think it's more Red Hat management pressure to rely on Github and Google," Ryan said, but it seems to be related to neither. "You know," Ryan continued, "the infrastructure self-hosting was VERY reliable for many years before that." He mentioned "GMail, Google Drive, calendar stuff" as examples, citing the anonymous post that said about Jim Whitehurst: "He didn't use our products (used a Mac, along with other members of the executive management team), allowed RH to dump open source solutions for our own business to move things to Google's services (which is a huge message to our very clients of "we don't value or trust open source, so why should you?")"

"A few hours ago Fedora Infrastructure had another very major OpenShift failure (not the first such incident over the past few days)."The migration pages are edited mostly by Kevin Fenzi (IBM/Red Hat), who wrote about it less than a year ago in the devel-announce mailing list. No replies to it as of this date.

Is Copr on AWS now? Seems so. If the new DC of Fedora is Amazon-owned and Amazon-controlled, there may be something to conclude. Depending on one's opinion regarding Amazon and AWS, which turns Free/libre things into proprietary.

This message from last year says the hosting of various services is moving to the city/area in VA where AWS has many datacentres that already route some Fedora traffic. While we don't know for sure what's going on, as we need to better understand what plans are made in the boardroom (behind closed doors), it seems likely there's a move to Amazon.

Four years ago The Atlantic published "Where Are Amazon's Data Centers?" and it took note of Ashburn and Sterling. About a year later Wikileaks revealed that both places have lots of datacentres in them, mostly Ashburn (shown above is our screenshot of these).

Going back to Kevin, less than a year ago he wrote: "Fedora Infrastructure currently has the majority of its hardware in a datacenter in Arizona, USA. Red Hat leases this space for use by a number of teams, including Fedora."

"This message from last year says the hosting of various services is moving to the city/area in VA where AWS has many datacentres that already route some Fedora traffic."We can confirm, based on lots of checks, that many services still link to that datacentre.

"However," Kevin continued, "they've been seeking a more modern and cost effective location for some time and have decided on one: So, we will be migrating to a new datacenter located in Ashburn, Virginia in 2020."

Oh, Ashburn. Where Amazon has a densely-distributed cluster of datacentres.

Is Red Hat moving to 'the cloud' and, if so, why not its own? Does IBM feel like it needs to outsource that to a competitor/partner?

The details on this are still not certain and I could not get anybody from Fedora (in IRC) to confirm or deny. Quite frankly, many of them may not be aware.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 25/06/2025: Elon Musk’s Lawyers Caught Lying, WhatsApp Faces More Bans
Links for the day
Wayland Pushers Lose the Argument, Use LLM Slop and Chatbots to Make Up Arguments for IBM
Another new low and low blow
What is "MATA"?
Think of it as GAFAM or "Meta"
WebProNews is a Slopfarm
Please avoid linking to WebProNews
Another "Told You So!": XBox Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Many Recent Reports Were Chaff and Spin), Many Other Divisions Affected
With mass layoffs at Microsoft the world would be much better
 
BetaNews Beginning to Show What Its True Goals Are
The 'new' BetaNews won't be about journalism. It's trying to sell things.
Microsoft Has Lost "The War"
We'll soon see the 9th or 10th wave of Microsoft layoffs in 2025 alone
Slopwatch: A Wreck and a Dreck, "Flooding the Zone With Dreck" or Flooding the Web With Junk
"Slopwatch" continues today because we have many new examples
Links 25/06/2025: Thwarting More Software Patents, Overlap Grows Between EPO Corruption and Illegal Kangaroo Patent Courts in EU
Links for the day
Brian Fagioli Created Another Slopfarm Targeting "Linux" After BetaNews Became a Slopfarm of Phantom Accounts and Pseudonyms
Mr. Fagioli even had slop about a dead Torvalds (hypothetical) as clickbait
Wayland is Perfect, Nobody Can Escape Its Perfection! (Or Not)
Do not form on opinion on Wayland based on politics
Moral Duty for "Linux Sites" to Speak Out Against LLM Slop
My wife has long complained about "Linux bloggers" keeping quiet and thus passive about a growing problem: slop
In Recent Hours Google News Promoted at Least 3 Slopfarms That Relayed Linux Foundation Propaganda Made by Bots or LLM "Bullshit Generators" (as Dr. Stallman Dubbed Them)
Google is circling down the drain and Google News too is hopeless
Linux Journal is a Slopfarm, It's Experimenting With LLM 'Authors'
Is Slashdot next?
Microsoft LinkedIn is Dying and Many More Layoffs Are on the Way
LinkedIn is just a failed acquisition of Microsoft. It causes losses and debt.
Gemini Links 25/06/2025: Combinatorial Music and Self Hosting
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Coming Back to Europe This Autumn to Give More Talks
His last talk in Europe attracted about 400-450 people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 24, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Social Control Media, Technology & Catholicism: Synod on Synodality review and feedback
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
How Many More Women Will Managers at Microsoft Strangle and Tell to Kill Themselves (or Try to Kill)?
The world needs to know what happened
The New BetaNews: 7 New 'Articles', All of Them LLM Slop
BetaNews is basically defunct. Nobody writes there anymore.
statCounter Estimates Only 1 in 300 Iranians Would Use Microsoft for Search
Iranians don't quite trust Microsoft
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: ftpd on FreeBSD and Online Small Web Magazine
Links for the day
Google News Does Great Harm by Promoting Slopfarms as Legitimate News Sites
Slopfarms are sites which are 100% LLM slop
Links 24/06/2025: Trouble at "Open" "AI" and ‘Siarhei is Free’
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: Stimulants and Subscription Costs for DRM
Links for the day
When the Microsoft Aggressors Rely on Several Law Firms ('Attack Dogs', 'Guns for Hire'), Not Just One, Lawyering Up Against Techrights (Acting on Behalf of Americans Against UK Publishers)
From serving customers at some restaurant he has moved on to bullying people with demand letters
Links 24/06/2025: OpenAI [sic] May Soon Die (Too Much Debt) and Social Control Media Accused of Being Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda Amplifier
Links for the day
Nirbheek Chauhan in Planet GNOME Explains Why Wayland Pushers Are Losing
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Polygamy, from Catholic Synod on Synodality to Social Control Media & Debian CyberPolygamy
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Only a Third of or 1 in 3 Web-Connected Devices is a Desktop or Laptop, According to statCounter
we can expect Android to widen its lead
The Days Are Getting Shorter, the First Half of 2025 is Almost Over
We're gratified to see significant increase in traffic and also positive feedback on the work we do
Turning GNU/Linux Into a Political Football
X (not the site) is Free software
X Server Still Works for Many People
A lot of people will grow suspicious of Wayland boosters/pushers if they persist and insist on using these tactics
Exactly a Week Ago "BetaNews Staff" Said "Betanews Is Growing Alongside You". Since Then Every Article (All by "Camila Nogueira") Has Been LLM Slop.
BetaNews is basically a slopfarm
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 23, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 23, 2025
The "Tarzan Effect" in Compilers and Software
What happens when you forcibly make things 'work', either by hacks or by disregarding warnings (like those that compilers tend to issue)?
Gemini Links 23/06/2025: Mass Tourism, Hair Love, and Google Gemini as a Googlebomb
Links for the day
Law Firm Burgess Mee Does Not Fully Deny Participating in Abusive Litigation for Serial Strangler From Microsoft
I am not unfamiliar with these tactics
The Modus Operandi of Wayland Pushers: Make It Political
do what I say or you're a nazi...
Links 23/06/2025: RFE/RL Contributor Vladyslav Yesypenko Released, Recording Industry Cutbacks
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Solicitors (M): Over 99.9% of Our E-mail is Self-Marketing, We Send You 3.5MB E-mails for Less Than 1KB of Text
Why would tech people entrust legal matters to such people?
Peter Moon's (Computerworld) Interview With Richard Stallman
Stallman: If you want freedom don't follow Linus Torvalds
At What Point Does Outsourcing Constitute Malpractice?
Brett Wilson LLP's new staff page is misleading
United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sailing to GNU/Linux, According to statCounter
countries in that region will quickly learn the price of neglecting digital sovereignty
From Do Your Own Research to Do Your Own Search
The Web is full of garbage; search engines amplify this garbage
More People Moving to Geminispace?
at age 6+ Gemini Protocol seems to have gained some maturity and it seems like more people use it
Permutation in LLMs Does, Inevitably, Change Meanings and Therefore LLMs Cannot Properly Rephrase or Summarise Texts
LLMs lack actual grasp or comprehension of what they spew out
Links 23/06/2025: Many Security Breaches, Population Declines
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/06/2025: "America at the Crossroads" and OpenWRT Surgery
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 22, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 22, 2025
Pure Dove
Different means different, and sometimes those who "deviate" from "the norm" have a point
Censorship is a Sign of Weakness Which Invites More Censorship Attempts
revolutionaries don't succumb to pressure from bullies
Why It's Unlikely That LLM Slop Will Dominate the Web in the Long Run
Slopfarms will eventually perish (they have no actual value) and "survivors" on the Web will be sites that never depended on search engines and social control media
GNU/Linux in Argentina Now Measured Near 5%
Like in central Europe, they must be seeing an increasingly hostile US
BetaNews is Fake News, Composed by LLM Slop
nothing in BetaNews is written by humans anymore