Open source software maker Elastic will soon make things quite difficult for AWS, as the company will move its source code from the Apache 2.0 license to the Server Side Public License (SSPL) and Elastic license. Elastic is known for its open source Elasticsearch search and analytics engine and its Kibana data visualization dashboard, which are used by Netflix, LinkedIn, Walmart, and many other large companies in the cloud. While large enterprises are likely to be affected by the license change, Shay Banon, CEO of Elastic, explained in a blog post that the majority of their users will not be affected, saying, “This license change from the source code has no impact on the vast majority of our user community who use our default distribution for free. It also has no impact on our cloud customers or our self-managed software customers. "
Source code license
Instead of contracting with Elastic, many large enterprises use Amazon Elasticsearch Service for application integration and analysis. AWS isn't the only cloud provider to offer Elasticsearch, as the analytics engine is also available on Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. However, there is a big difference because Microsoft and Google have a business relationship with Elastic, while AWS does not. In a more recent blog post, Banon explained that Elastic was changing the way it licenses its source code to prevent AWS from offering its products as a service, saying, "They're doing things that we think aren't right since 2015 and it's only been worsened. If we don't address them now, as a successful company and market leader, who will? Our license change is intended to prevent companies from taking our Elasticsearch and Kibana products and providing them directly as a service without engaging with us. " For cloud providers to offer Elasticsearch services under SSPL, they must agree to open up their hosting cloud infrastructure. While most AWS software is already open source, Amazon will likely never agree to open it all up. Enterprises Using Elasticsearch and Kibana will soon see their cloud computing costs rise due to licensing changes made by Elastic.Via ZDNet