Tytus Kurek
on 24 July 2025
The Linux Foundation and OpenStack – a new chapter for cloud-native infrastructure
Effective July 23rd, 2025 the Open Infrastructure Foundation (OIF) has officially joined one of the world’s largest and most influential open source communities: the Linux Foundation. This strategic move reflects the accelerating trend toward open source standardization and democratization – a movement Canonical has proudly supported since its inception.
As a long-standing and active member of both communities, Canonical is excited about this merger and the opportunities it brings. In this post, we share what this change means for our customers, the Ubuntu community, the Linux Foundation, and OpenStack.
From OpenStack to Open Infrastructure
The journey began in 2010 when OpenStack was first launched as a collaborative project led by NASA and Rackspace. As a leader in open source, Canonical recognized its potential early on and was deeply impressed by its vision and mission. OpenStack quickly gained momentum, attracting contributors from across the industry and leading to the formation of the OpenStack Foundation.
Canonical became a founding member of the OpenStack Foundation and, for over a decade, has helped shape its development. We’ve effectively guided users through its complexity, made deployment simpler, and contributed extensively to the upstream code – today ranking as the third-largest contributor, with over 25K commits since the inaugural Austin release.
As OpenStack grew in popularity, the OpenStack Foundation became a hub for other open source projects. Initiatives like Kata Containers and Zuul further extended the impact of open infrastructure. These collaborations ultimately led to the transformation of the OpenStack Foundation into the Open Infrastructure Foundation, with the goal of unifying open source software for building open infrastructure.
Containers and cloud native: the quest for unification
While OpenStack was evolving, the Linux Foundation was fostering a new wave of innovation. A few years after OpenStack’s debut, Kubernetes emerged, aiming to revolutionize the way applications are deployed and operated. The rise of containers and the broader cloud-native paradigm shifted the industry’s attention toward Kubernetes.
Kubernetes was great at managing applications, but lacked proper infrastructure management capabilities – a space where OpenStack excelled. As these two ecosystems matured, many organizations began exploring ways to integrate them, seeking the best of both worlds: scalable infrastructure management from OpenStack, and modern application orchestration from Kubernetes.
This convergence sparked a collaborative spirit. Despite some initial friction, both communities recognized the value in aligning their efforts. The ultimate result of all those efforts is today’s merger – a strategic alignment that brings OpenStack under the Linux Foundation’s governance and sets the stage for deeper cooperation across the entire landscape of open infrastructure.
Uniting OpenStack and Kubernetes
Under the Linux Foundation, OpenStack will continue as a standalone project – but now as part of a unified ecosystem that also includes Kubernetes. This is a pivotal development for users and vendors looking to seamlessly integrate these technologies.
Several projects already bridge the gap:
- OpenStack Magnum allows users to provision Kubernetes clusters on top of an OpenStack cloud on demand. It keeps OpenStack as the infrastructure management layer, while elevating Kubernetes as a cloud middleware.
- OpenStack Sunbeam takes a different approach, running the OpenStack control plane directly on Kubernetes. This transforms OpenStack into yet another application that runs on top of a cloud-native computing foundation.
These efforts show that OpenStack and Kubernetes are not competitors but rather complementary technologies. When integrated, they offer greater value than when deployed in isolation. In many ways, they fit together like two peas in a pod.
That’s why this consolidation under the Linux Foundation is such a promising step forward.
Summary
The decision by the Open Infrastructure Foundation to join the Linux Foundation marks a new chapter for open source infrastructure. It opens the door to greater collaboration, standardization, and innovation across both the OpenStack and Kubernetes ecosystems.
Canonical fully supports this transition and remains committed to advancing both technologies. We will continue to deliver on our commitments to customers and the entire community.
To learn more about Canonical’s involvement in OpenStack and Kubernetes development, visit the following resources:
