Thought Leadership
May 13, 2025

AWS Injects $3M into Kubernetes: What It Means for Open Source Sustainability

A massive cloud credit grant underscores Kubernetes’ critical status—but who funds the open-source projects that aren't trending?

AWS Injects $3M into Kubernetes: What It Means for Open Source Sustainability
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AWS Just Backed Kubernetes—Big Time

AWS has pledged $3 million in cloud credits to Kubernetes, the backbone of modern cloud infrastructure. This isn't just a marketing move—it's a strategic investment in the sustainability of one of the most important open-source projects in the world. The credits will help run the infrastructure behind Kubernetes project testing and development, ensuring contributors can continue their work without being bottlenecked by expensive compute needs.

It also signals a bigger shift: major cloud providers are stepping up to fund the critical OSS they rely on. And Kubernetes, which powers everything from banking infrastructure to startups' CI/CD pipelines, is as critical as it gets.

Open Source Is Infrastructure. But Not All Infrastructure Gets Funded.

The AWS grant is great news. But it also raises a question that rarely gets answered publicly:

What about the OSS projects that aren't in the spotlight?

While Kubernetes is getting multi-million dollar support, thousands of foundational libraries and frameworks that are still in active use get nothing. They're old, but not obsolete. They still run in production, buried deep in enterprise stacks. And they're quietly becoming high-risk dependencies because no one is paying to keep them secure.

This is where HeroDevs comes in.

We're not here to support the most hyped frameworks—we're here for the ones still powering mission-critical apps long after official support ends. Projects like AngularJS, Bootstrap 3, Node 12, and Vue 2. They may not get $3M grants, but they still matter. They still need maintenance. And they still deserve security.

Sustainability Means Longevity, Not Just Popularity

The Kubernetes funding story shows what's possible when the industry treats OSS as infrastructure. It proves there's a path to sustainable open source. But it also reveals a gap: unless you're in the CNCF or backed by a trillion-dollar cloud provider, long-term support is a question mark.

At HeroDevs, we fill that gap. Our Never-Ending Support program gives teams a way to keep using proven OSS without taking on hidden security or compliance risk. We bring structure to what would otherwise be abandonware.

So yes—we're thrilled Kubernetes is getting funded. But we're also here for the frameworks that aren't.

Want to talk about support for your legacy stack? Let’s talk.

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