Is eBPF Foundation Molding the Future of Infrastructure
Some of the biggest IT companies, including Meta, Netflix, Google, Isovalent, Microsoft, and others, together formed the eBPF foundation on August 12, 2021.
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Key takeaways
- Some of the biggest IT companies, including Meta, Netflix, Google, Isovalent, Microsoft, and others, together formed the eBPF foundation on August 12, 2021.
- All participants of the directed fund shall benefit from the privileges and undertake the responsibilities as mentioned in the charter.
- Currently, the growth of the eBPF is limited to a specific area, but with time it could be much more widely used.
Some of the biggest IT companies, including Meta, Netflix, Google, Isovalent, Microsoft, and others, together formed the eBPF foundation on August 12, 2021. The brief of this was discussed in the eBPF Summit, a virtual event conducted during August 18- 19, 2021.
Linux divides its space into two parts: the user space and the kernel space. eBPF, extended Berkeley Packet Filter, is a technology that allows Linux programs to run their codes within the kernel. It previously has been used to construct networking, debugging, tracing, firewalls, and other types of programs.
The eBPF Foundation #
The need for foundation arises as several eBPF-based projects (both ongoing and future) will be adopting this technology. The eBPF foundation is established keeping in mind the vision and the bright future that eBPF holds. It will establish a clear roadmap while having a well-maintained core of eBPF. The foundation will manage funds in the way of raising, budgeting, and allocation to support various open source, open data, and open standard programs relating to this technology.
The eBPF foundation will set up the eBPF steering committee to pave its technical direction. One of the primary objectives of the eBPF foundation would be to extend the capabilities of eBPF and explore its potential beyond LINUX.
The foundation would be the base on which the open-source eBPF project and teach would be built. They would nurture the community through various activities, summits, and collaborative events that would drive the community’s growth even further.
eBPF Foundation Committee Members #
As per the charter of the foundation, the members would be composed of the platinum, silver, and associate member class. All members have to be corporate members at the Linux Foundation to participate in the Directed Fund. All participants of the directed fund shall benefit from the privileges and undertake the responsibilities as mentioned in the charter.
The Platinum members will be entitled to appoint a representative to the governing board and any other committee except the BSC or any other committee established by the BSC. Currently, this class comprises of the following corporate (all members in the foundation might be subject to change with time, for the latest update visit the foundation page):
- Meta
- Isovalent
- Microsoft
- Tiger
- Huawei
- Crowdstrike
The Silver class members will be entitled to elect one representative (up to three representatives allowed) to the governing board for every five silver members. There will always be at least one representative, even if the members are less than five in this class. Currently, this class comprises of the following corporate:
- Netflix
- DaoCloud
- Atoms
- FutureWei
The Associate Member class is limited to the associate class of the Linux foundation. There may be specific criteria for the associate members to join the directed fund.
Members will have a seat in directed fund meetings, events, initiatives, and other activities.
eBPF Foundation Member Quotes #
Meta
Chris Mason, Kernel Maintainer and Engineering Director at Facebook, expressed his gratitude
to the dedicated developers and maintainers for their tireless work as eBPF has played a critical role in accelerating kernel development. He said that they’re excited to support the development of the eBPF community, supporting them to accomplish the tools they need to power the upcoming generation of Linux system development.
Chris DiBona, director of open source at Google, stated that she was excited to hear about the LINUX foundation deciding to host eBPF. She also commented that eBPF will have a major influence in the future of networking for the Linux kernel and that Google is pleased to be a part of the evolution standard created by eBPF.
What Does The Future Hold? #
Languages such as JavaScript have made web browsers programmable. It allows you, as a user, to benefit from the latest innovations without installing the new version. eBPF will make operating systems programmable the same way JavaScript and other programming languages made web browsers programmable. It unlocks an un-imaginable potential for innovation in the future, just like how web browsers have become a standard platform for most applications. It allows developers to embed programs in all forms of software (including the OS kernel) with ease and efficiency. Currently, the growth of the eBPF is limited to a specific area, but with time it could be much more widely used.
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