June 18, Apache top-level project APISIX behind commercial companies "mainstream technology" announced the completion of a multimillion-dollar round of financing A + , round of financing by the Jingwei China lead investor, shun capital and it real fund followed suit. This round of financing will accelerate the advancement of mainstream technology in product development, open source communities, ecological construction and internationalization.
SegmentFault reporters interviewed the Tributary Technology, Apache PPMC Wen Ming , and we chatted about his understanding of open source and commercialization, as well as the latest development and future plans of APISIX.
Picture: Wen Ming at the Dev.Together 2021 China Developer Ecological Summit
Behind the open source of APISIX: To become the best API gateway in the world
Founded in 2019, Zhiliu Technology is an open source basic software company that provides API processing and analysis. It currently has three core products, namely the cloud native API gateway, k8s ingress controller and service grid. The three products can be connected to each other. The solution helps users build traffic processing and analysis at the network layer under the cloud native system.
Tributary Technology is also the commercial company behind the Apache top-level project APISIX. The top-level project APISIX donated by Tributary Technology to the Apache Software Foundation is a new generation of cloud native API gateway , providing load balancing, dynamic upstream, grayscale release, service fuse, and identity Rich traffic management functions such as authentication and observability.
APISIX has been developing in the community through open source from the very first day. After 4 months of open source, it entered the Apache incubator and graduated as a top project in July 2020. Apache APISIX quickly completed the entire process from incubation to graduation, which was The fastest graduating top project in Apache history is . Apache Incubator Chairman Justin and Apache APISIX Champion Jiang Ning once commented that APISIX is "the most worry-free incubation project for mentors."
Speaking of why open source and why the project was donated to the Apache Software Foundation, Wen Ming said that this is related to their original intention of starting a business, " become the world's best API gateway, which will help companies better handle business traffic ." However, if it is a closed-source project or only part of the code is open on GitHub, it will not be possible for more companies and developers to participate in the contribution, and thus there will be no way to achieve the initially set goals. Donating to the Apache Foundation is also to let more people know about this project and participate in the community.
Today, Apache APISIX has 250 code contributors from all over the world, and a total of related to the project have been submitted. will release a new version of every month, which is the most active API gateway for global developers. project.
In Wen Ming's view, the key to making the community prosper is not the commonplace operating skills. "The methods and skills are the same in each company. The key is whether you can stick to this kind of long-term value." From the founder, he began to invest his energy in the community. , Maintain close communication with front-line users and developers.
Talking about open source and commercialization: the vast majority of open source projects do not have commercial value
When it comes to open source and commercialization, Wen Ming said bluntly that " most open source projects do not have commercial value ". There are thousands of open source projects on GitHub, but there are very few projects that can be commercialized. At the beginning of open source, I made a tool/project. I hope to let more people know and show it to more people, and then I will open the source code. Only when this tool/project can create commercial value for the client enterprise, the project itself has the possibility of commercialization.
terms of software types, basic software such as operating systems, middleware, and databases are more suitable for open source . Such software usually has strong irreplaceability or enterprises have strong dependence on it. On the other hand, application-level, alternative products, such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, or many ERP software, do not need to be open source.
Looking at the above examples, we can find that closed source does not affect these companies to become very successful commercial companies. For open source commercial companies, open source is just a means, but in the end it is also for the commercial value behind it. Therefore, opening source and commercialization does not necessarily link , and open source does not mean that it is free.
Speaking of the "open source fever" in China in the past two years, Wen Ming also has his own point of view:
- Open source is hot, but open source is not actually a panacea for enterprise commercialization ;
- open source writes in the "14th Five-Year Plan" to "break the circle" of open source , and more developers will understand and participate in open source;
- Open source commercial companies need to "long-distance running". After the two to three years subsides, 160cc2dc189055 can survive the "really open source" company "chasing hot spots" in a short time;
- Open source is now "a hundred flowers blooming", ultimately PK is the technical hard power .
Entrepreneurship management philosophy from the community, remote collaboration, no overtime, technical people
Tributary Technology was first co-founded by Wen Ming and Wang Yuansheng. They were once colleagues of 360. They have worked together for seven years and are heavy open source enthusiasts.
What's more special is that the companies APISIX and Tributary Technology appeared almost at the same time-a common practice in the open source circle is that several friends/colleagues have made an open source project, donated it to the foundation, obtained investment, and left the company when they felt that there was development prospects. Start a business. However, Wen Ming and Wang Yuansheng are different. They looked for this direction from the beginning. It took only half a year to set up a company, write code, open source, and donate to the foundation. The purpose of establishing the company is to commercialize APISIX.
Community and company appear at the same time, probably because of this reason. Tributary Technology has more than 20 employees from the APISIX community . They have excellent technical capabilities, collaboration habits and tacit understanding, have similar values, and recognize open source culture.
The reporter saw that in the recruitment of Tributary Technology, "support remote, no overtime"——
At present, Zhiliu Technology's employees are distributed in 10 different cities across the country, and they work through remote collaboration. This requires engineers to have high time management and communication skills. Thanks to the fact that everyone has been collaborating in the community through GitHub and mailing lists for a period of time, it is not a big challenge for Tributary Technology.
Regarding overtime work, in Wen Ming’s view, companies that delve into basic software cannot solve core technical problems by working long hours and overtime alone. What they need is depth thinking and more frequent user communication. This is the real thing. "Engineer culture" drives .
comes from the community, remote collaboration, no overtime, this is probably the entrepreneurial management philosophy of technical people .
When it comes to entrepreneurship by technical people, what is unexpected is that Wen Ming is actually a "persuasion teacher"-technical people have a relatively high risk of starting a business on their own, and it may be possible to join a fast-growing start-up company whose founder is a technical background. It is a better choice. He laughed and talked about "APISIX is a good choice, welcome to join!" (Resume delivery: wenming@api7.ai)
Related Reading:
Apache APISIX has been considered · Developer Comment: https://segmentfault.com/product/1890000040120734
Wen Ming, CEO of Tributary Technology, was selected as 33 Chinese Open Source Pioneers: https://segmentfault.com/a/1190000038597979
Apache APISIX Siwhy Community Homepage: https://segmentfault.com/u/apache_apisix
Apache APISIX project warehouse: https://github.com/apache/incubator-apisix
The official website of Technology: 160cc2dc1891eb https://www.apiseven.com/zh
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