Google Hands Control Of Kubernetes To Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Google plans to hand over control of its open source container orchestration system, Kubernetes, to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) now the project has reached the version 1.0 milestone.

The CNCF, in partnership with the Linux Foundation, will see a coalition of partners including Cisco, eBay, Huawei, IBM and Intel, take over the helm of Kubernetes to develop the future of container-based computing.

“In a single year, Kubernetes has become one of the most popular and successful open source projects,” wrote Google. “With over 14,000 commits from over 400 contributors, including developers from Red Hat, CoreOS, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, VMware, and many others.”

Open Container Project

It was only in June when a horde of tech giants signed up to the Open Container Project (OCP), a coalition that will create a concrete standard for the future of software containers, also managed by the Linux Foundation.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, Docker, and IBM are among those who have joined the OCP, however, AWS and Microsoft are not on the list of participants for the CNCF. In contrast to the CNCF, the OCP will focus on developing a common container standard.

Red Hat, one of the members involved in the CNCF, said that it is pleased to be a founding member of the foundation to help advance standards for emerging open source technologies.

Lars Herrmann, general manager for Container Strategy at Red Hat said: “The foundation will seek to prevent the technology fragmentation that can impede customer adoption and stymie effective industry collaboration.”

Sam Ghods, vice president of technology at Box, thinks that working with Kubernetes will open new possibilities for companies in terms of app portability.

“We continue to be impressed with the high quality and overall integrity of its technical governance,” he said. “[We] envision it becoming a core component of our infrastructure.”

Furthermore, as noted by cloud provider and CNCF member Joyent’s CTO Bryan Cantrill,  despite launching with Kubernetes, the CNCF will not be limited to that particular project in the future.

Cantrill said that the foundation is dedicated to a particular ethos: that of creating new kinds of applications and services that “represent modern, server-side computing”.

“Kubernetes is just the beginning,” added Google. “CNCF will be guided by a technical committee who will engage open source and partner communities to build new software to make the entire container toolset more robust. They will also evaluate additional projects for inclusion in the foundation and ensure that the overall toolset works well as a whole.”

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