Apache Software Foundation is one of the most prestigious bodies in the Open Source world. Most Open Source projects survived through the roughs of IT booms and crashes with active help from their sponsors. The ASF is supported and backed by many top notch IT giants like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Hewlett-Packard, and now we have one more addition to the list.

Facebook is the newest to join the list of Apache Software Foundation sponsors. These sponsors offer extensive help in organising events, expanding to a wider reach and facilitating daily running of the foundation.

On this recent development, the ASF Chairman Jim Jagielski says,

sponsoring the ASF helps us grow existing projects, incubate new initiatives, promote community development, host user events, expand our outreach, and provide the infrastructure that keeps the Foundation running on a day-to-day basis.

While Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft enjoy the position of Platinum Sponsors, Facebook has decided to join as a Gold Sponsor with the likes of HP. Facebook has already contributed to many open source projects licensed under the ASF, namely Hive, Cassandra and Thrift. These projects are under active development from Facebook. Not only this, Facebook claims to have around twenty Open Source projects under its name.

This sponsorship by Facebook will help the ASF grow. With the ever growing and one of the largest communities by its side, ASF has ensured a safe place for itself for years to come.