gVisor is being donated to CNCF
In 2018, Google open-sourced gVisor under the Apache 2.0 license, making it the second most mature implementation of Linux after Linux. This year, Google is donating the gVisor project, along with its name and trademarks, to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), a subsidiary of the Linux Foundation. CNCF focuses on cloud-native computing, and Google seeded its creation by donating the Kubernetes project. gVisor does not neatly fit into the industry's well-known boxes of sandboxing/security landscape, as it provides empirically-equivalent security without checking the "virtualization" checkbox that security auditors, regulators, or practitioners often use as a proxy for security.
This has caused adoption challenges and a performance perception problem for gVisor. The project has potential non-commercial applications, but adoption has been limited to large tech companies and startups with specific use-cases. By contributing gVisor to the CNCF, Google aims to address these issues and enable integration and adoption beyond highly-motivated/sophisticated/resourceful corporate entities.
The move aligns with the current state of the security industry, as cheap and secure sandboxing has never been clearer. Google has reached out to potentially-interested parties, including Ant Group, Modal, Tines, OpenAI, Tencent, and NVIDIA, with more contributors expected to join gVisor's maintainers for the long haul. The project is already usable on all major clouds, making gVisor a good complement to CNCF's existing portfolio.
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