Open Source Isn't a Business Model Choice Anymore. It's the Only Option.
A few weeks ago, on the sidelines of an event at La Felicita (Station F), I got into a conversation with the CEO of Aiven about open-source business models. His take was clear and, frankly, well-earned: the managed cloud is the correct way to monetize open source. Let the community build the moat, put a hosted layer on top, and sell the operational convenience. He's not wrong. That model has…
The article argues that open-source isn't a business model choice anymore; it's the only viable option. The author cites several examples of open-source projects being relicensed by their creators due to competition from managed cloud services offered by hyperscalers. MongoDB, Elastic, Redis, and HashiCorp have all moved their licenses away from AGPL to restrict community access and protect their businesses.
However, the author points out that this approach often backfires, leading to community backlash and even acquisition by larger companies. The author then presents ZizkaDB as an alternative to this approach. ZizkaDB is built under AGPLv3 and runs inside customers' own cloud environments, rather than being a managed multi-tenant service.
The author argues that this approach positions ZizkaDB as compliant with upcoming regulations and provides a moat that doesn't rely on legal restrictions. They believe that open-source with data staying put is becoming the only credible option in the AI infrastructure market.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
