The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) is a project founded in 2015 by the Linux Foundation to help advance container technology and align the technology industry around its evolution. The CNCF is the largest open-source sub-foundation operated by the Linux Foundation and is dedicated to fostering the growth and evolution of cloud-native systems through the stewardship and encouragement of open-source projects. This includes ensuring the technology is available, accessible, integrated, and reliable. The CNCF hosts projects such as Kubernetes, Prometheus, and CoreDNS. Further, the CNCF serves as a vendor-neutral home for projects and fosters collaboration through industry developers, end users, and vendors.
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation is a member-based organization, with 800 members working together to drive innovation through the development and standardization of cloud-native technology.
The technologies researched and developed by the CNCF are called projects, and most of them are hosted on GitHub. These projects pass through three stages of maturity:
- An initial "sandbox" stage
- An incubating stage, in which the project must meet additional criteria, such as documentation of at least three end users
- The graduation stage, in which a project must complete an independent security audit.
CNCF projects have included Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Envoy. The foundation works to ensure a uniform user experience and software compatibility while maintaining the available technologies' brands and ensuring community members use them appropriately. Further, CNCF created a centralized continuous integration dashboard to ease testing and management of projects across the cloud and on bare metal platforms.
There are several tiers of membership to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. These include the highest level Platinum Membership, Gold Membership, Silver Membership, Academic Members, Nonprofit Members, and End-User Supporters.
