Elastic Embraces Open Source Again: A Shift in Strategy and Partnership
In a significant move within the open source community, Elastic has announced its return to open source, a shift that has generated considerable buzz. Shay Banon, Elastic’s founder and CTO, expressed his excitement about the change, emphasizing the company’s unwavering belief in the power of open source. As part of this shift, Elastic will soon introduce the AGPL (GNU Affero General Public License) as an additional licensing option alongside the existing Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2) and Server Side Public License (SSPL). This announcement marks a new chapter for the company, signaling its commitment to the open source ecosystem once again.
The decision to return to open source comes after significant shifts in Elastic’s relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS). In 2021, Elastic changed its licensing model to prevent AWS from freely using and offering Elasticsearch as part of its managed service offerings. As a result, AWS had no choice but to fork Elasticsearch, creating its own version called OpenSearch. Over time, OpenSearch has gained traction, but Elastic is now confident that the market confusion surrounding the Elasticsearch trademark has mostly been resolved.
According to Banon, the resolution of this confusion, combined with AWS’s commitment to its own OpenSearch fork, has allowed Elastic to relax its previous concerns. With AWS no longer offering Elasticsearch as a direct service under its own brand, Elastic feels the landscape has shifted in its favor. This has paved the way for what Banon describes as a “stronger than ever” partnership between Elastic and AWS. The evolution from competition to collaboration seems to have fostered a more harmonious relationship between the two companies.
This change in direction is particularly notable, as it aligns with a broader trend of open source companies reevaluating their strategies in the face of competition from cloud giants like AWS. From Banon’s perspective, AWS is a valuable partner, but the road to collaboration has not always been straightforward. His comments reflect a shift in how companies, such as Elastic and MongoDB, are navigating the complex world of open source licensing and cloud services, balancing competition with partnership for mutual growth.