Elasticsearch is open source again, releasing its software under AGPL License

Elasticsearch is a distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine, scalable data store, and vector database. Elasticsearch is currently released under dual license, Server Side Public License (SSPL) and the Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2). Couple of years back they changed their license from Apache to SSPL / ELv2. AWS was providing Elasticsearch as a service in their cloud which annoyed Elastic as they have worked hard for more than 10 years to build a product and AWS was making money benefiting from the open source development. 

In order to control AWS and other cloud providers from using Elasticsearch, Elastic considered using SSPL / ELv2 for Elasticsearch. AWS then forked Elasticsearch and started working on OpenSearch. AWS maintained Apache License for OpenSearch and added lot of features to it. 

This was considered good move from Elastic in order to safe guard their product but this doesn't go well with software companies. Company lawyers were against using SSPL / ELv2 within the organizations. When the license terms and conditions are strict and confusing they thought to avoid. Most of the them switched from Elasticsearch to OpenSearch. OpenSearch is licensed under Apache and it is developer friendly license. 

Elastic is also offering its cloud service in AWS, Azure and GCP. AWS is one of the primary marketplace for Elastic. Due to this they have reached an agreement with AWS in using the Trademark and resolved Trademark infringement lawsuit. OpenSearch is also progressing in development and Elastic is also dependent on AWS for cloud offering. Instead of fighting the lawsuit, it is good they reached to some conclusion.  

Elasticsearch now again considered using AGPL license. Though AGPL is also strict but it's terms and conditions are clear and it is OSI approved. This will certainly help Elastic to maintain its market share.