Cloud Native Computing Foundation

Cloud Native Computing Foundation
AbbreviationCNCF
Formation2015; 9 years ago (2015)
Type501(c)(6) organization
PurposeBuilding sustainable ecosystems for cloud native software
General Manager
Priyanka Sharma
CTO
Chris Aniszczyk
Parent organization
The Linux Foundation
Websitewww.cncf.io Edit this at Wikidata

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) is a Linux Foundation project that was started in 2015 to help advance container technology[1] and align the tech industry around its evolution.

It was announced alongside Kubernetes 1.0, an open source container cluster manager, which was contributed to the Linux Foundation by Google as a seed technology. Founding members include Google, CoreOS, Mesosphere, Red Hat, Twitter, Huawei, Intel, RX-M, Cisco, IBM, Docker, Univa, and VMware.[2][3] Today, CNCF is supported by over 450 members. In order to establish qualified representatives of the technologies governed by the CNCF, a program was announced at the inaugural CloudNativeDay in Toronto in August, 2016.[4]

Dan Kohn (who also helped launch the Core Infrastructure Initiative) led CNCF as executive director until May 2020.[5][6] The foundation announced Priyanka Sharma, director of Cloud Native Alliances at GitLab, would step into a general manager role in his place.[6] Sharma describes CNCF as "a very impactful organization built by a small group of people but [within] a very large ecosystem" and believes that CNCF is entering into a "second wave" due to increased industry awareness and adoption.[7]

In August 2018 Google announced that it was handing over operational control of Kubernetes to the community.[8] Since its creation, CNCF has launched a number of hosted sub-projects.

In January 2020, the CNCF annual report for the previous year was issued and reflected significant growth to the foundation across membership, event attendance, training, and industry investment. In 2019, CNCF grew by 50% since the previous year with 173 new members and nearly 90% growth in end-users.[9] The report revealed a 78% increase in the usage of Kubernetes in production.[10]

  1. ^ "New Cloud Native Computing Foundation to Drive Alignment Among Container Technologies". Cloud Native Computing Foundation. 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  2. ^ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. "Cloud Native Computing Foundation seeks to forge cloud and container unity". ZDNet. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  3. ^ "Cloud Giants Form Foundation to Drive Container Interoperability". Data Center Knowledge. 2015-07-21. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  4. ^ Calcote, Lee (2016-09-06). "Cloud Native Ambassadors and Docker Captains navigate users through the container ecosystem". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  5. ^ "CNCF Names Kohn as Executive Director". Light Reading. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  6. ^ a b "Priyanka Sharma takes over the leadership of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation". TechCrunch. June 2020. Archived from the original on 2022-01-24. Retrieved 2020-06-07.
  7. ^ Meyer, Dan (July 6, 2020). "CNCF Leadership Change Targets Cloud Native 'Second Wave'". SDxCentral. Archived from the original on 2022-01-24. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
  8. ^ "Google takes a step back from running the Kubernetes development infrastructure". TechCrunch. 29 August 2018. Archived from the original on 2022-01-24. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  9. ^ "CNCF Annual Report 2019". Cloud Native Computing Foundation. 25 December 2019. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  10. ^ "CNCF survey reveals 78% use Kubernetes in production". JAXenter. 2020-03-09. Retrieved 2020-07-06.