The New Stack

The New Stack
Name	The New Stack
Type	Online technology magazine
Founded	2013
Founder	Alex Williams
Headquarters	San Francisco, California
Language	English

The New Stack is an online publication covering cloud native computing, software development, and devops-related ecosystems. Founded in 2013, it reports on containerization, orchestration, and platform engineering trends while hosting events and producing podcasts. The outlet interfaces with a range of organizations, projects, and vendors across technology hubs in Silicon Valley, Seattle, and New York.

History

The New Stack was launched in 2013 by Alex Williams with early coverage intersecting with projects such as Docker (software), Kubernetes, Mesosphere, CoreOS, and Cloud Foundry. In its formative years the publication chronicled the rise of Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure while featuring commentary from figures associated with Red Hat, IBM, VMware, and Canonical (company). As container orchestration matured, The New Stack reported on shifts tied to initiatives like CNCF projects including Prometheus, Envoy (software), gRPC, Jenkins (software), and Istio. Coverage expanded to incorporate security discussions involving entities such as OpenSSL, Let's Encrypt, OWASP, and Snyk. Editorial partnerships and syndication connected the outlet with organizations including TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Wired, and ZDNet while intersecting with conferences such as KubeCon, DockerCon, AWS re:Invent, and Google I/O.

Focus and Coverage

Reporting emphasizes technologies and projects like Kubernetes, Docker (software), Helm (software), Terraform (software), Prometheus, and Grafana (software), as well as runtime platforms from vendors such as Red Hat, VMware, HashiCorp, and Pivotal Software. The New Stack publishes analysis on programming languages and frameworks including Go (programming language), Python (programming language), Java (programming language), Node.js, and Rust (programming language), and tools such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Jenkins (software), and CircleCI. It also covers adjacent standards and specifications driven by bodies like IETF, W3C, and Linux Foundation projects including OpenAPI Initiative and TARS. Editorial pieces examine integrations with platforms from Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Corporation, and Alibaba Cloud.

Audience and Influence

The New Stack targets practitioners and decision-makers at organizations ranging from startups in Silicon Valley and Seattle to enterprises such as Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, Spotify, and Facebook. Readers include developers familiar with Linux, site reliability engineers connected to SRE (site reliability engineering), platform engineers aligning with Platform engineering practices, and CTOs at companies like Stripe, Square (company), Salesforce, and Adobe Inc.. The outlet's interviews and profiles have featured technologists from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Red Hat, and IBM, and have been cited in materials by academic institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley.

Business Model

Revenue streams include sponsored content, native advertising, paid webinars, and event ticketing in collaboration with partners such as CNCF, Linux Foundation, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, and commercial vendors like HashiCorp, Datadog, New Relic, Splunk, and PagerDuty. The New Stack has produced content partnerships with companies including Intel Corporation, NVIDIA, Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Dell Technologies. Subscription offerings and membership programs have been discussed in context with broader industry models promoted by platforms such as Medium (website), Substack, and Patreon (service).

Events and Community Engagement

The New Stack organizes meetups, sponsor-driven workshops, and podcast series engaging guests from projects like Kubernetes, Envoy (software), Prometheus, gRPC, and Istio. It has hosted or sponsored events aligned with conferences including KubeCon, DockerCon, Open Source Summit, and ServerlessConf, and partnered with community groups such as Meetup (website), Linux Foundation, OpenStack Foundation, and Cloud Native Computing Foundation. The publication's podcasts and webinars have featured speakers from companies such as Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Red Hat, HashiCorp, Datadog, and research labs at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Criticism and Controversies

The New Stack has faced criticism typical for trade publications, including debates over editorial independence when publishing sponsored content alongside news, echoing broader critiques leveled at outlets like TechCrunch, The Verge, and Wired. Observers have questioned potential conflicts involving advertising relationships with vendors such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Red Hat, and VMware. Discussions in forums like Hacker News, Reddit, and on platforms such as Twitter have highlighted tensions between vendor influence and journalistic standards, similar to controversies experienced by Gizmodo and Ars Technica.

Category:Technology media