[23david]

Really good overview of the current business environment for OSS companies and SAAS vendors of OSS software.

I definitely agree that Amazon, Azure and Google are squeezing the OSS vendors and other SAAS providers by offering their own hosted options. From experience, I know that it's possible to still compete with the large cloud vendors, so I don't think that they're necessarily an existential threat to OSS businesses. But if you're a VC-backed company watching your valuation and your investors are expecting a 100x return, I think that cloud vendors jumping into your market makes the big investor payday a lot less likely. And if you want to compete in the SAAS market your company needs to get really good at the managed hosting business.

IANAL, but if all options are on the table is it possible to have a modified OSS license that would exclude 'hyperscale' cloud vendors from offering a hosted version?

[pauldix]

(Post author here) I think that was part of the goal with AGPL license, but it doesn't explicitly remove the possibility. My guess is that's one reason AWS hasn't offered hosted Mongo, despite the large community around the DB.

CockroachDB took an interesting two license approach with all code still out in the open: https://www.cockroachlabs.com/blog/how-were-building-a-busin...

Then there was MariaDB's recent closed, with a time bomb to open source later or the BSL (business source license): https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/19/mysql-founder-tries-a-new-...

Both seem like interesting approaches. Hard to tell what, if anything will get the most community and commercial moment behind it. I think that's the key: being able to foster a large community while being able to build a sustainable business around it. Ideally, one that can justify VC investment. If you're building a smaller business then your options definitely change.