The open source community was abuzz with the news of Elastic’s return to open source, a move that marks a significant shift for the company. Shay Banon, the founder and CTO of Elastic, expressed his excitement, stating, “We never stopped believing in open source at Elastic.” The company announced that it would be adding the AGPL (GNU Affero General Public License) as an additional licensing option alongside its existing Elastic License 2.0 and SSPL (Server Side Public License) in the coming weeks. This move is seen as a major step towards re-aligning Elastic with its open-source roots, and Banon’s enthusiasm for the change was palpable in a conversation about the decision.
The decision to return to an open-source model was largely made possible by a key shift in AWS’s approach to Elasticsearch. After Elastic changed its licensing in 2021, AWS could no longer simply adopt Elasticsearch as part of its service offerings. Instead, AWS opted to fork Elasticsearch and create OpenSearch, which has since gained momentum in the market. Banon explained that now that Amazon is fully invested in their fork and the confusion around Elastic’s Elasticsearch trademarks has mostly been resolved, the company felt comfortable returning to a more open model. This has led to what Banon describes as a “stronger-than-ever” partnership with AWS, showcasing how the dynamic between the two companies has evolved over time.
With Elastic’s move back to open source, a broader question emerges: will other companies that have similarly transitioned away from open source follow suit? As Banon puts it, much of this depends on AWS’s actions moving forward. Elastic’s decision to reintroduce open-source licensing could set a precedent, particularly for those companies navigating the tricky waters of licensing, trademarks, and the cloud service landscape. The open-source community is watching closely to see if this signals a larger trend toward reclaiming open-source principles, even as cloud giants dominate much of the market.
The situation also highlights the complexity of trademarking and partnerships in the open-source world. Elastic, as Banon recounts, didn’t take the step of trademarking Elasticsearch to create corporate barriers but to protect his work. This approach aligns with how early open-source leaders like Red Hat used trademarks to safeguard their contributions. However, when AWS began offering Elasticsearch as its own branded service, without any meaningful contribution to its development, the situation became contentious. The issue, according to Banon, was not about competition but about the misrepresentation of the product as an AWS service. Despite Elastic’s efforts to address this, it was a long and difficult battle, with Banon stating that they faced significant legal opposition from AWS. This saga underscores the challenges that arise when big corporations enter the open-source space and the intricate balance between open-source ideals and commercial interests.