Google blew it with open source layoffs | InfoWorld, JAN 30, 2023

"...I’m arguing against getting rid of key people who established, and still maintain, the scaffolding upon which all of Google’s open source and, by extension, cloud hopes rest. For example, back in 2019, Google used open source as a cudgel to smack the other clouds for poor partnerships. It announced partnerships with seven open source data companies. (Disclosure: although I didn’t work for MongoDB then, I do now, and MongoDB was one of those seven.) More recently, Google helped create the Open Source Security Foundation to improve security in key open source projects, thereby making these open source projects safer to use. In fact, open source permeates pretty much everything Google does in its cloud business. While much is kept closed (like BigQuery), much more is open. The strategic benefit of open sourcing software like TensorFlow or Kubernetes is that it allows Google to influence industry direction. The same is true for projects Google didn’t start but actively contributes to. Take a stroll through the Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s Devstats pages and you’ll find Google is a significant (if not the biggest) contributor to projects such as Envoy, etcd, Knative, Istio, and more..."