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Comment by hacknat | Hacker News Reader

I disagree with this article’s premise that all software is services-based. There are lots of open-core business models that can’t be eaten by the cloud providers, because they aren’t services to be spun up.

Almost all of the CNCF-based businesses are complex plug-in models that the CPs can’t just make a button for.

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AWS has a hosted version of Kubernetes and Envoy now, and those are both CNCF projects. Other CNCF projects like NATS and Argo have equivalents on AWS today.

Even if they're complex and not one-button click to drop in, the cloud providers seem keen on running managed versions of these projects.

What projects come to mind as being "immune" to this problem, out of curiosity?

I'm curious about this too; I'd love some counter-examples and that was a big reason for me taking the rather arrogant stance of claiming "cloud killed open core." I selfishly wanted to rile up smart folks who could prove me wrong.

Almost by definition the projects that are immune to this are the projects that are not yet popular enough. It’s not a coincidence that it’s Kubernetes and Envoy that are the most popular CNCF projects.

I think CNCF, or more generally, Linux Foundation projects are better characterized as public goods. Basically a bunch of companies, many whom are competitors with each other, get together to improve the commodified base upon which they depend. Saves a lot of $$$ that would otherwise be wasted in wheel reinvention or spent on license fees.

For the particular case of AWS now offering Kubernetes, is that:

- A win for AWS, since they can leech code without contributing back

- A win for Kubernetes contributors and users vs AWS, since now customers have the option of moving their Kubernetes workloads from AWS to other providers.

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