Amazon Web Services Hands Over OpenSearch to Linux Foundation

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has transferred its previously hosted open-source project, OpenSearch to the Linux Foundation. 

In line with this, the Linux Foundation has launched the OpenSearch Software Foundation, designed to enhance the development and collaboration surrounding the search and analytics engine. 

Officially announced today, 16 September, the goal is to enable vendor-neutral governance, which is expected to drive the project’s growth and expand community participation.

OpenSearch, originally a fork of Elasticsearch and Kibana, has evolved into a widely used software solution with over 700 million downloads to date. 

The Linux Foundation will now oversee the project, providing it with adequate resources for further development. This includes operational and programming support, alongside community collaboration, which are key factors in ensuring its longevity and continued innovation. 

The project is well-known for enabling developers to build robust search, analytics, observability, and vector database applications.

Nandini Ramani, AWS vice president of search and cloud operations, stated the importance of OpenSearch’s move to a vendor-neutral platform. She emphasised that this transition is essential for the next phase of the project’s development. “By transferring OpenSearch to the Linux Foundation, we are setting the project and its community up for its next stage of growth,” Ramani stated. 

The new foundation is expected to attract greater collaboration from various sectors, further strengthening the project.

The foundation has drawn huge support from a variety of leading tech organisations, with AWS and Uber being premier members. Other contributors include SAP, Aiven, Atlassian, and Canonical, among others. 

The OpenSearch Software Foundation will be led by a technical steering committee, ensuring that the project remains aligned with its core principles of openness and collaboration.

Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation’s executive director, highlighted the importance of search technology in both business and everyday consumer use, noting the foundation’s commitment to supporting the community in advancing the project’s capabilities.

The support for OpenSearch goes beyond just AWS and Uber. SAP’s Michael Ameling spoke on the importance of this transition for the company’s observability strategy, seeing it as a necessary element in their ability to innovate. 

Similarly, Uber’s Shanshan Song commended OpenSearch’s sophisticated capabilities in improving user experiences, reinforcing the company’s support for the project’s growth under the Linux Foundation.

This transition comes as OpenSearch continues to break new ground in search technology, incorporating modern advancements such as vector search, machine learning (ML), and generative AI (GenAI). 

Mehul Shah, CEO of Aryn.ai, noted that OpenSearch’s contribution to AI-powered search is transformative, particularly in emerging fields like semantic and hybrid search. These advancements are expected to accelerate now that the project is housed under the Linux Foundation’s umbrella.

As part of its ongoing innovation in open-source software, the Linux Foundation will provide the necessary infrastructure to ensure that OpenSearch continues to grow in a collaborative environment. 

By doing so, the foundation will keep OpenSearch at the forefront of search and analytics technologies, attending to the needs of developers and organisations worldwide.

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