Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Cloud Native Computing Foundation is an open-source software foundation that hosts and advances projects for containerization, orchestration, and microservices. It was created to foster collaboration among companies such as Google, Red Hat, IBM, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and institutions including Linux Foundation affiliates. The foundation incubates technologies that underpin platforms used by organizations like Spotify, Uber, Airbnb, Netflix and The New York Times.

History

The foundation was announced in 2015 after major stakeholders including Google contributed projects and assets from initiatives such as Kubernetes's origins in Borg (cluster manager) research. Early formation involved collaboration among corporations like CoreOS, Mesosphere, Docker, Inc., and nonprofit entities such as Linux Foundation. Milestones include graduation of flagship projects alongside industry events like KubeCon and partnerships with cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Over time governance and project maturity drew participation from companies including VMware, Intel, Facebook, Salesforce, Huawei, Nokia, Cisco Systems, Oracle Corporation, and foundations like Apache Software Foundation.

Governance and Membership

The foundation's governing body comprises corporate and individual members drawn from organizations such as Red Hat, IBM, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google. Technical oversight has involved maintainers and committers who are affiliated with firms like Canonical, SUSE, Intel, Huawei, and research institutions such as University of California, Berkeley contributors. Advisory boards and special interest groups have included representatives from Netflix, Twitter, Pinterest, Goldman Sachs, PayPal, BMW Group, Adobe Inc. and standards bodies like OpenAPI Initiative. Membership tiers echo models used by Linux Foundation affiliates and similar entities such as OpenStack Foundation and Eclipse Foundation, enabling corporate sponsorship and community participation by organizations like Red Hat-backed projects and startups such as Heptio.

Projects and Ecosystem

The project's portfolio spans orchestration, service mesh, observability, storage, and CI/CD tools. High-profile graduated projects and incubated efforts have included Kubernetes, Prometheus, Envoy (software), gRPC, containerd, Helm (software), Jaeger (software), Linkerd, Fluentd, Open Policy Agent, and CNI (Container Network Interface). The ecosystem integrates with cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and virtualization vendors such as VMware, OpenStack, and Hyper-V. Commercial vendors and distributors including Red Hat, Canonical, SUSE, Rancher Labs, Mirantis, and HashiCorp build offerings around these projects. Interoperability efforts reference standards from organizations like Cloud Native Computing Foundation-hosted initiatives and cross-project collaboration with The Linux Foundation projects such as Open Container Initiative and Let's Encrypt-style certificate tooling.

Events and Training

The foundation organizes global conferences and regional events including KubeCon and CloudNativeCon, drawing attendees from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Red Hat, and VMware. Training and certification programs have been adopted by institutions like Linux Foundation Training and universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology for professional development, alongside commercial training providers such as A Cloud Guru, Pluralsight, and Udemy. Workshops, hackathons, and project-specific meetups engage developer communities from organizations like GitHub, GitLab, Bitnami, Elastic (company), and research labs at Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley.

Impact and Adoption

Adoption spans enterprises, startups, and public sector agencies that run infrastructure for companies including Spotify, Airbnb, Uber, Monzo, and institutions like The New York Times and BBC. The foundation's projects have influenced cloud-native patterns used by cloud providers Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure, as well as telcos such as Telefonica and AT&T. Observability and service-mesh components have been integrated into platforms from Cisco Systems, Intel, NVIDIA, and Arm Ltd. The foundation's work has been cited in technical reports by organizations such as Gartner and Forrester Research and adopted in standards discussions at bodies like Open Container Initiative and IEEE working groups.

Category:Software foundations