Markus Rex Open Source Expert, Datto

Datto, Inc. hired open source industry expert Markus Rex to manage and nurture the company’s interactions with the open source community.

He will be responsible for helping to oversee the company’s open source initiatives. Datto has been a key contributor to the open source community since the company’s inception ten years ago, and continues to provide input and innovation to various open source communities.

Datto’s Inverse Chain technology utilizes the open source ZFS OS to provide rapid restore capabilities and enterprise scalability to thousands of MSPs globally.

“We’re committed to providing our MSP partners and their end-user customers with data recovery and BC solutions that hold up to the highest performance, protection and privacy standards,” stated Robert Gibbons, CTO. “Markus’ deep industry expertise and open source knowledge will help ensure that we are adhering to that promise.”

According to a 2016 survey by Black Duck Software, 65% of American companies are contributing in one form or another to the open source community.

“With the adoption of open source code on the rise, Markus will not only support the growing community but advance Datto’s contributions in the open source ecosystem,” adds Gibbons.

“Open source is at the core of Datto’s most advanced technologies,” stated Rex. “I’m excited to build upon Datto’s vision and solutions while helping the company continue to contribute to the community and remain a good open source citizen.”

A respected figure in the open source community, Rex was previously co-founder and CEO of ownCloud, an open source, self-hosted file synchronization and sharing application platform. He has been involved with open source for more than 20 years, putting a focus on how companies can build a business around open source while respecting and contributing to the overall community. In addition to serving as the CTO of the Linux Foundation between 2007 and 2008, he has also been a board member of the Open Source Business Foundation and ran the SUSE Linux business for many years.