The Linux Foundation announced the launch of the OpenSearch Software Foundation, a new community-driven organization that will support the development of OpenSearch.
OpenSearch, an open source search and analytics software project, was founded by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2021 and is now being transferred to the Linux Foundation.
The transition of OpenSearch to the Linux Foundation means that the project is now managed independently. OpenSearch was originally developed by AWS as an open source alternative to Elasticsearch and is widely used for search, analytics and observability applications. The creation of the OpenSearch Software Foundation will further grow the community and the roadmap is now driven by a technical committee within the Linux Foundation.
AWS launched OpenSearch in 2021 in response to Elasticsearch’s license change, which prompted AWS to develop its own version under the Apache 2.0 license. This open approach led to strong growth, with more than 700 million downloads and thousands of contributions from different developers and organizations. The project now has 200 permanent contributors from 25 different organizations.
Transferring management to the Linux Foundation is intended to further increase trust in the project and attract more companies. Many organizations were hesitant to invest in a project that was under the control of AWS. By bringing OpenSearch into the Linux Foundation, the project will be seen as more neutral and attractive to a wider community.
The new OpenSearch Software Foundation is supported by major players such as AWS, Uber and SAP as leading partners. Companies such as Canonical, NetApp and DigitalOcean are also involved as general members. This broad support package is intended to stimulate the further development of the project.
In addition to governance by the Linux Foundation, AWS continues to play an important role. Carl Meadows, product manager of OpenSearch at AWS, will serve on the board of the new foundation. The focus remains on expanding OpenSearch’s functionality with recently introduced innovations such as cloud-native architecture and segment replication. The rise of AI has also led to growing interest in OpenSearch as a vector database.
The Linux Foundation emphasizes that the new foundation is focused on supporting open and collaborative development, with the goal of making powerful search and analytics solutions available to both businesses and individuals worldwide.