The New Stack Podcast

OpenSearch: What’s Next for the Search and Analytics Suite?

Apr 10, 2025

Amanda Katona, who leads an open source engineering team at NetApp, dives into the transformative journey of OpenSearch since its launch. She discusses its move to the Linux Foundation, which has boosted community contributions and enterprise adoption. A striking 56% increase in downloads showcases growing interest. Katona highlights the upcoming OpenSearch 3.0, enhancing search speed amid rising data volumes. She emphasizes the importance of vendor-neutral governance and invests in machine learning tools, underscoring OpenSearch's promising future in data infrastructure.

20:10

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Episode guests

Amanda Katona

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

OpenSearch's transition to Linux Foundation governance has fostered community engagement and increased enterprise adoption, reflected in a 56% download boost.

NetApp's commitment to OpenSearch revolves around customer-driven development, highlighting the importance of addressing operational challenges and enhancing user experiences.

Deep dives

The Evolution of OpenSearch

OpenSearch originated in April 2021 as a response to changes in Elasticsearch's licensing and has since transitioned from a company-led project to being part of the Linux Foundation. This shift has encouraged a significant increase in community contributions, with over 700 million downloads reported, and a notable 56% growth since its foundation was established. The migration from a proprietary to an open-source platform is driving interest, as organizations seek to implement OpenSearch for its capabilities and advantages. As enterprises consider migration, they are increasingly focused on finding solutions for operational challenges and exploring enhanced features offered by OpenSearch.

Intro

2min

The Transformation of OpenSearch

5min

Evolving Developer Engagement in AI and Machine Learning

2min

Integrating OpenSearch: Commitment and Innovation

5min

Governance and Growth of OpenSearch

7min

OpenSearch has evolved significantly since its 2021 launch, recently reaching a major milestone with its move to the Linux Foundation. This shift from company-led to foundation-based governance has accelerated community contributions and enterprise adoption, as discussed by NetApp’s Amanda Katona in a New Stack Makers episode recorded at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe. NetApp, an early adopter of OpenSearch following Elasticsearch’s licensing change, now offers managed services on the platform and contributes actively to its development.

Katona emphasized how neutral governance under the Linux Foundation has lowered barriers to enterprise contribution, noting a 56% increase in downloads since the transition and growing interest from developers. OpenSearch 3.0, featuring a Lucene 10 upgrade, promises faster search capabilities—especially relevant as data volumes surge. NetApp’s ongoing investments include work on machine learning plugins and developer training resources.

Katona sees the Linux Foundation’s involvement as key to OpenSearch’s long-term success, offering vendor-neutral governance and reassuring users seeking openness, performance, and scalability in data search and analytics.

Learn more from The New Stack about OpenSearch:

Report: OpenSearch Bests ElasticSearch at Vector Modeling

AWS Transfers OpenSearch to the Linux Foundation

OpenSearch: How the Project Went From Fork to Foundation

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