Bloomberg’s dedication to open source software underscores its role as a transformative force in both the company and the global tech industry. Over the years, Bloomberg has embraced an “open source first” mentality, resulting in a cultural shift towards active participation in the open-source ecosystem. With hundreds of employees, including senior leaders, engaging in various open-source initiatives, Bloomberg’s journey has been marked by groundbreaking contributions and collaborative efforts. This strategy is directed by Bloomberg’s Open Source Program Office (OSPO) within the Office of the CTO, ensuring that the company’s commitment to open-source software is both deep and strategic. By prioritizing open-source solutions for new infrastructure, Bloomberg has successfully tailored high-quality, scalable open-source projects to its specific needs in finance—especially in areas like high-availability, low-latency, and large-scale computing.
Bloomberg’s Cultural Transformation to Open Source
Bloomberg’s shift towards an “open source first” approach has involved a significant cultural transformation over the past two decades. This journey has ensured that open source is not just a directive but a core value of the organization. Employees are not only users of open-source software but also active contributors. This cultural shift is facilitated by the OSPO, which works under the Office of the CTO to embed open-source practices deeply into the company’s operations. The active engagement of senior leadership in open-source initiatives exemplifies Bloomberg’s commitment. Employees are encouraged to take on roles such as maintainers, committers, and technical steering committee members for various open-source projects. By integrating these roles into their career development, Bloomberg fosters a culture of ownership and innovation, ensuring that open-source contributions are a fundamental aspect of their technical expertise.This cultural transformation is not just limited to individual contributions but extends to institutional efforts that engage a broad range of employees. For example, Bloomberg’s OSPO organizes ‘Open Source Day/Weekend’ events, which bring together employees, developers, and the academic community to collaborate on open-source projects. These events foster a sense of communal effort and provide opportunities for employees to work side-by-side with external developers, thus strengthening the community. It’s a holistic approach that promotes open-source principles at all levels of the organization, ensuring that the concept of “open source first” becomes ingrained in the daily operation and mindset of every employee.
Pragmatic Use of Open Source Software
Bloomberg’s approach to adopting open-source software is highly pragmatic. The company often opts for open-source solutions that initially meet approximately 80% of their requirements instead of proprietary or source-available options. This pragmatic approach involves customizing and extending these solutions to meet Bloomberg’s unique technical constraints—particularly those related to high-availability, low-latency, and large-scale computing demands in the finance sector. The result is a suite of tailored, high-quality open-source tools and applications that deliver immense value to Bloomberg’s clients. These tools adhere to Bloomberg’s four Vs principle—volume, velocity, variety, and veracity—ensuring robust and reliable performance in global capital markets.This approach not only fulfills Bloomberg’s immediate technical needs but also contributes to the broader open-source ecosystem by sharing enhanced solutions back to the community. By leveraging open-source software, Bloomberg reduces dependency on proprietary systems, enabling greater flexibility and faster innovation. One notable example is Bloomberg’s work on the Chromium project, including contributions that improve CSS Grid Layout and WebAssembly functionalities essential for high-performance web experiences. Financial services rely on these innovations for faster data processing and more efficient client interactions, encapsulating Bloomberg’s commitment to leveraging open-source software to drive business value.
Major Contributions to Open Source Projects
Bloomberg’s engineers are prolific contributors to key open-source projects, often securing leadership roles that influence the future development of these projects. For instance, Bloomberg employees have leadership positions on foundation boards and standards committees, which guide the development of essential programming languages such as C++, Python, and JavaScript. Noteworthy contributions include significant improvements to tools and platforms like Git, Clang/LLVM, and Eclipse. These contributions are not just technical; they often involve strategic guidance to ensure these projects evolve to meet the industry’s growing and changing needs.By taking active roles in these projects, Bloomberg ensures that their unique requirements are addressed while also fostering a general advancement in technology standards. Furthermore, their contributions often extend beyond mere code changes, impacting the organizational and governance structures of these open-source projects. In doing so, Bloomberg ensures that open-source software evolves in ways that are beneficial not only for their business needs but also for the broader tech community. Their engineers are also active in the continuous development and maintenance of these projects, providing patches, documentation, and mentorship to new contributors, thus galvanizing the process of collective innovation in the open-source ecosystem.
Collaboration with the Global Open Source Community
Bloomberg recognizes the importance of collaboration and extensively supports the global open-source community. This is achieved through funding research, hosting events, and sponsoring projects that benefit the community at large. Since 2013, Bloomberg has hosted Open Source Day/Weekend events, bringing together employees, community members, and students to work collaboratively on open-source projects. These events have positively impacted projects like pandas, NumPy, and Matplotlib, resulting in tangible improvements. Additionally, Bloomberg financially supports improvements to open-source projects critical to their operations. Examples include advancements in Chromium’s CSS Grid Layout, the addition of BigInt in WebAssembly, and updates to GNU Autoconf and Psycopg version 3. This financial support ensures the sustainability and continuous improvement of these crucial projects.The company’s collaborative efforts are further exemplified through partnerships with academic institutions and continuous support of research initiatives. By funding open-source research projects, Bloomberg facilitates the creation of innovative tools and libraries that benefit not only their internal operations but also the global developer community. These collaborative endeavors are characterized by a bidirectional flow of knowledge and resources, fostering an enriched ecosystem where both Bloomberg and external developers gain from each other. Bloomberg’s open-source events also provide a platform for budding developers to contribute and learn, making valuable connections and building skills that drive their own professional growth.
Sustaining Open Source Projects
Employee engagement plays a pivotal role in sustaining open-source projects that are critical to Bloomberg’s operations. The Bloomberg FOSS Contributor Fund, launched in partnership with the Corporate Philanthropy team, epitomizes this commitment. This fund allows employees to directly support chosen open-source projects, ensuring their long-term viability. Through financial contributions and active participation, Bloomberg sustains the momentum of critical open-source initiatives. The company’s support extends beyond mere engagement, reflecting a strategic investment in the continuous evolution of the open-source ecosystem. This involvement ensures that the projects Bloomberg relies on remain robust and innovative.In addition to financial backing, Bloomberg promotes a culture of continuous learning and skill development for its employees. Special training programs and workshops focused on open-source software development ensure that their engineers are well-versed in the latest trends and technologies. This proactive approach to workforce development guarantees that Bloomberg’s contributions to the open-source community remain innovative and impactful. The company also ensures that employees have sufficient time and resources to contribute to open-source projects during their regular work hours, making open-source engagement an integral part of their job responsibilities. This holistic approach not only benefits the open-source community but also enhances employee satisfaction and skill diversity within Bloomberg.
Showcasing Bloomberg’s Open Source Projects
Bloomberg has developed and shared several open-source projects that address complex technical challenges. These projects span areas such as cloud infrastructure, information retrieval, data science, natural language processing, and mobile application development. Notable examples include PowerfulSeal, a tool for chaos engineering in Kubernetes that tests cluster resilience, and Comdb2, a distributed database optimized for low-latency and high-availability requirements. Other significant projects include Goldpinger, a Kubernetes cluster monitoring tool that provides real-time insights into pod communication, and amqpprox, an AMQP proxy designed for monitoring and debugging messaging applications.Several of these open-source projects have been spun out and are now supported by independent communities with their own governance structures. For example, the Solr Operator, developed by Bloomberg engineers to manage Apache Solr Clouds within Kubernetes, was donated to the Apache Solr project. The bqplot interactive plotting and charting library for Jupyter notebooks has become a NumFOCUS Affiliated Project, and KServe, a Kubernetes Custom Resource for deploying machine learning models at scale, was co-developed by Bloomberg engineers before being contributed to the LF AI & Data Foundation. Each of these projects epitomizes Bloomberg’s commitment to developing high-impact tools that offer substantial benefits to a wide array of users and industries.
Conclusion
Bloomberg understands the power of collaboration and actively supports the global open-source community through various initiatives. This support manifests in the form of research funding, event hosting, and project sponsorship, all aimed at bolstering the community. Since 2013, Bloomberg has organized Open Source Day/Weekend events, which unite employees, community members, and students to contribute to open-source projects. These gatherings have brought about significant improvements in projects like pandas, NumPy, and Matplotlib. Bloomberg provides financial backing for enhancements in important open-source projects that align with their operational needs, such as advancements in Chromium’s CSS Grid Layout, inclusion of BigInt in WebAssembly, and updates to GNU Autoconf and Psycopg version 3, ensuring their sustainability and continual evolution.Bloomberg’s collaborative spirit extends through partnerships with academic institutions and ongoing support of research endeavors. By funding open-source research projects, Bloomberg aids in developing cutting-edge tools and libraries that benefit both their internal teams and the global developer community. These collaborative efforts create a mutually beneficial ecosystem where both Bloomberg and external developers reap rewards. Moreover, Bloomberg’s open-source events serve as invaluable opportunities for aspiring developers to contribute, learn, and build networks, fostering skills and connections that propel their professional journeys forward. This comprehensive approach underscores Bloomberg’s commitment to fostering an enriched and sustainable open-source environment.
