The open-source community has always had a time-honored tradition of mascots. At NetFoundry, when we created OpenZiti, we knew what had to be done, you see, Ziti {zee-tee}, has 2 definitions in the dictionary:
- noun Italian Cookery
A medium-sized, tubular pasta shape, perfect for chunky sauces and meat dishes. Cooked by eaters for eaters. - noun Software
Modern, programmable network overlay and associated edge componentry for application-embedded, zero-trust networking. Written by developers for developers.
On that day, Ziggy was born. Ironically, Ziggy is the type of pasta who is happy to share his secrets with trusted people. This week we will explore 10 of these to learn more.
Ziggy loves to cook. His philosophy is to help developers to cook without recipes, secure permissionless innovation. At NetFoundry we have a run series called ‘Ziti Kitchens’ where Ziggy shows us all the new skills he has been developing. He also came up with the idea of ‘Zitifications’, the process of taking an application and incorporating a Ziti SDK into that application – no need for VPNs or additional software. He runs an open kitchen policy so created a place for developing projects based on – https://github.com/openziti-incubator.
Ziggy’s favourite album is Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie. He’s a deeply cultural piece of pasta. If you ask him nicely he might pick up his guitar and strum you a few tunes.
Ziggy is sick and tired of cybercrime. Today, this is a $1 trillion dollar drag on the global economy (source McAfee). That’s a lot of money that could be spent on more important causes such as properly funding vital open-source projects which do not fit an open-core model or fighting climate change which led to shortages and a 50% increase in the price of pasta in 2021…. unacceptable, particularly when we have a solution by using OpenZiti to close all inbound ports!- Ziggy’s is a movie and book nerd. One of his favorites is Harry Potter (the books are better), he loves the idea of
magic. He does it himself by making applications invisible. Did you know that some highly creative Muggles created a Harry Potter-themed pasta restaurant open in Brooklyn in New York. Before lockdowns, Ziggy ate there and said it was ‘bloody brilliant!’. Read more about comparisons between Zero Trust and Harry Potter magic. 
Ziggy loves the outdoors. Everything from hiking, to trekking, to climbing and bouldering. A few years ago he walked from the NetFoundry HQ in Charlotte North Carolina to Rochester in Upstate New York where most of the OpenZiti development team are based… that’s basically the Appalachian Trail.
Ziggy enjoys learning. Curiosity is key to learning, luckily Ziggy is more curious than a cat. Having a hollow centre means he can cram lots of information and knowledge on new topics. Perfect for taking exams. Most Friday he listens to Ziti TV, normally at 11 am EST on YouTube.
Ziggy loves a good party and celebration. We celebrate every update to OpenZiti and everyone, especially Ziggy, is looking forward to throwing a huge party when he reaches his sweet 1.0 release.
- Ziggy is a ninja. Having grown up watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ziggy has a soft spot for ninjas, pizza and skateboards. Within the OpenZiti team, we have
various ninjas who help make our SDKs, fabric and core as awesome as possible so your app can become more stealthy. Capgemini and Arm did this in a zero trust autonomous car blueprint ensuring no Log4Shell exploits – it even includes a cool picture. - Ziggy has an origin story. He can help to give your app superpowers by embedding zero trust directly into your application using OpenZiti. Clint on our Ziti development team would love to tell you more and discover the origin story for your app with a webinar together with the Linux Foundation – here.
Ziggy has many other outfits hidden away.Would you like to find them and admire his delightful outfits? Maybe this will divulge more secrets! Check out – https://github.com/openziti/branding.
Contact us to give us feedback on Ziggy, his secrets and what characters and outfits are missing that you would like to see – https://netfoundry.io/about/contact-us/.
For live updates, follow Ziggy on Twitter!
Check out more Ziggy’s here – https://github.com/openziti/branding
