Open Source infrastructure deserves a business model

Dries Buytaert is the creator of Drupal and co-founder of Acquia, giving him a rare view of what it actually takes to keep a major open-source ecosystem alive.

In this essay, he makes a simple point that often gets lost: open-source software may be free, but the infrastructure behind it is not. And if large companies depend on that infrastructure, perhaps they should help pay for it.

“When one organization pays for the infrastructure, it ultimately controls it. When a broader set of stakeholders funds it, governance broadens with it.

That is why Open Source infrastructure needs more than better fundraising. It needs a business model that connects the cost of operating shared infrastructure to the organizations that rely on it most.

Infrastructure that entire ecosystems depend on cannot rely indefinitely on goodwill alone. It deserves a business model.”