AWS Welcomes the OpenSearch Software Foundation

OpenSearch, the popular open source, Apache 2.0-licensed, search and analytics suite, is celebrating a significant milestone – transferring OpenSearch to the OpenSearch Software Foundation, a community-driven initiative under the Linux Foundation. This announcement follows the leadership expansion of the project shared earlier this year to include stakeholders from outside of AWS in decisions that guide the future of the project.

By opening up the project governance and moving to a neutral home, the OpenSearch team is taking concrete steps to further the project’s founding principle that it is for the community and by the community. This includes fostering an inclusive and transparent environment, actively encouraging participation from contributors, and prioritizing community-driven decision-making processes.

From the time OpenSearch was introduced, the project has always worked to be a great example of how open source projects can provide high quality solutions and innovation for customers and the broader community. As the project evolved, there were many learning opportunities along the way. While AWS is an active part of many open source communities, shepherding the project into open source brought a number of new experiences. For many engineers working on the project, this was their first time engaging and contributing to an open source project.

Developing in the open is very different from closed development, so there was a unique learning curve to get them up to speed. AWS actively demonstrated its commitment to open source projects by contributing upstream, sharing best practices, and investing time and resources to help others. This meant taking our contributions to the next level, working in the open, holding public triage meetings, and hosting the project roadmap in the open.

For users of Amazon OpenSearch Service, the OpenSearch project’s move to The Linux Foundation does not change anything with regard to how the service is managed or operated. That said, we believe that a robust open source project and community will continue to fuel innovation for that service, just as it will for any offering based on OpenSearch.

Since its launch, the OpenSearch project has gained significant traction and popularity, with downloads surpassing 700 million so far (monthly downloads up 56% year-over-year). The community has brought in thousands of contributors to the project, and there are over 200 maintainers from 25 different organizations. The project boasts well-defined release mechanisms, regular community and triage meetings, and active contributions from a community of developers and users.

AWS’s stewardship has been an important part of the project’s success, but as the project has grown, so has the need for a larger diverse pool of additional users, contributors, and maintainers. We believe moving the project under the Linux Foundation will open the next chapter in OpenSearch’s history. This will enable the project to go even further in its open source journey, enable more open governance, and ensure a long-term and lasting benefit to the open source community.

There are many parallels between OpenSearch and the latest open source project we’ve helped launch, Valkey. Stephen O’Grady at RedMonk recently penned The Post Valkey world, where he cites the project as evidence that a well-maintained open source project with a diverse set of supporters is positioned well for success. While Valkey’s and OpenSearch’s path and progress have differed in many significant ways, AWS remains committed to OpenSearch for the long term because we firmly believe in the power of open source to increase innovation.

Whether it is Valkey or OpenSearch (or any of the many projects we contribute to), AWS knows that open source is important to our customers and the world. We are excited to be part of the next chapter of the project and its continued growth. Learn more from the OpenSearch community about this exciting announcement by reading Building the future of OpenSearch together.