Why AWS Donated OpenSearch to the Linux Foundation and Its Impact on Search

OpenSearch Joins the Linux Foundation

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced at the Open Source Summit in Austria on September 16 that it has donated its OpenSearch project—a fully open‑source fork of Elasticsearch and Kibana—to the Linux Foundation, creating the new OpenSearch Software Foundation.

The foundation’s founding members include AWS, Uber, Canonical, and Aiven, with additional members such as Aryn, Eliatra, Graylog, NetApp Instaclustr, and Portal26 providing support.

Linux Foundation states that OpenSearch is used worldwide to build search, analytics, observability, and vector‑database applications, with downloads exceeding 700 million.

OpenSearch Software Foundation will collaborate with community maintainers, developers, and founding members to ensure the project’s continued growth under the oversight of the Linux Foundation’s technical advisory committee.

“Moving OpenSearch to the Linux Foundation prepares the project for its next phase with vendor‑neutral governance, fostering more collaboration and resources for the community,” said AWS Search and Cloud Operations Vice President Nandini Ramini.

Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, added that a neutral platform is essential for open and collaborative development of search and analytics tools used daily by businesses and consumers.

According to Meadows, the move removes the last barrier—enterprise reluctance to fund vendor‑controlled open‑source projects—allowing OpenSearch to grow further.

For more information, visit the project website, foundation site, or the GitHub repository.