Xen Project colocation facility shutdown leaves open source OSSTest facing major disruption

Alternatively, OSSTest could move to a bare metal service provider, which would require rejigging OSSTest itself. There’s also a nuclear option: “As a last resort, abandoning OSSTest has been discussed,” said Choi, ominously.

Xen today, gone tomorrow

As with VMWare’s ESXi — a platform wracked with uncertainties of its own after it was acquired by Broadcom — Xen is a “bare metal” hypervisor. Its distinctive feature is its open-source status, hence its use in third-party virtualization products, including famously the Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer).

Xen lacks the features of mega platforms such as ESXi, but that’s OK as third parties such as Citrix and others can use it as the basis for adding their own.