Evolving Enterprise 2021 - The Rise of Open Source

TL;DR

Open source projects like Kafka and HashiCorp have gained incredible popularity and played a crucial role in the success of Confluent and HashiCorp, respectively.

Transcript

welcome everyone this is glenn solomon with ggv capital and i'm excited to bring you this panel on the rise of open source here at evolving enterprise ggv has been focused on open source as a model for several years and today we have two of the leaders in the industry to help shed light on the power of open source i'm delighted to welcome neha nark... Read More

Key Insights

• 🤗 Open source projects like Kafka and HashiCorp's tools have experienced significant adoption and played a crucial role in the success of Confluent and HashiCorp.
• 🪛 Community-driven development and evangelism have been essential in establishing these open source projects as well as driving adoption and market standardization.
• 🤗 Open source not only provides software solutions but also offers a different mindset and approach to data management and infrastructure development.
• 🤗 The value of open source extends beyond developers to include ecosystem creation, community engagement, and a diverse range of contributions.
• 🤗 Confluent and HashiCorp have successfully navigated the balance between partnership and competition with cloud providers, leveraging their open source solutions to differentiate in the market.

Questions & Answers

Q: What led to the creation of Kafka and the decision to make it open source?

Neha Narkedi explains that the need to manage data at LinkedIn led to the creation of Kafka and the decision to make it open source. They wanted to establish a central nervous system for the company and realized existing systems didn't scale to their needs.

Q: How has the open source community contributed to the development of HashiCorp's products?

Dave McJannet mentions that the open source community has been instrumental in contributing to the development of HashiCorp's products. They actively encourage contributions from developers and have experienced significant participation, resulting in a wide range of contributors and high-quality additions to their products.

Q: What value does open source bring to Confluent's business model?

Neha Narkedi highlights three primary drivers of value from open source for Confluent. Firstly, the broad adoption of Kafka as an open source project has created a natural funnel for their SAS and enterprise product offerings. Secondly, the community-driven evangelism has helped establish event streaming as a new category. Finally, open source has led to the creation of a vast ecosystem of tools and connectors, enhancing the utility of Kafka.

Q: How has the role of founders and community management evolved as Confluent and HashiCorp grew?

Neha Narkedi explains that in the early days, the founders spent a significant amount of time on community development and evangelism. As the companies grew, they hired stream processing engineers and a developer advocacy team to scale communication and community efforts. Dave McJannet also highlights the importance of authentic developer relations and how HashiCorp has dedicated resources to manage the ecosystem.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Neha Narkedi, co-founder of Confluent, explains the story behind building Kafka as a solution for managing data at LinkedIn and the importance of going open source.

• Dave McJannet, CEO of HashiCorp, discusses the open source projects they have built and the benefits of community-driven development.

• Both Confluent and HashiCorp have leveraged the power of open source to drive adoption, establish market standardization, and build strong developer communities.