Google’s decision to move the Istio service mesh project into a newly formed open source organization focused on protecting the trademark of open source projects instead of into an already established open source organization is not sitting well with many across the open source ecosystem, and most specifically with IBM, which helped Google develop Istio.

In its announcement, Google said it established the Open Usage Commons group as a way to protect the trademark of open source projects. It’s donating the Istio service mesh and two lesser-known projects – the Angular web application framework and the Gerritt code collaboration tool – into that new group.

Google touted its long history of working with open source projects and seeing where some of those projects have hit roadblocks as the reason for the move.

“The scale and tenure of Google’s open source participation has taught us what works well, what doesn’t, and where the corner cases are that challenge projects,” Chris DiBona, director for open source at Google, noted in a blog post. “One of the places we’ve historically seen projects stumble is in managing their trademarks – their project’s name and logo.”

DiBona explained that the use of project trademarks is different from the code “as trademarks are a method of quality assurance.”

“When trademarks are properly managed, project maintainers can define their identity, provide assurances to downstream users of the quality of their offering, and give others in the community certainty about the free and fair use of the brand,” he added. “Understanding and managing trademarks is critical for the long-term sustainability of projects, particularly with the increasing number of enterprise products based on open source. Trademarks sit at the juncture of the rule of law and the philosophy of open source, a complicated space; for this reason, we consider it to be the next challenge for open source, one we want to help with.”

This reasoning is tied to the use of an open source project name with a vendor offering that uses that project. An example is Kubernetes, which has its name used by a number of vendors as part of their own platforms.

Tom Petrocelli, research fellow at Amalgam Insights, noted that the move could theoretically allow Google and the new group to keep other vendors from using the Istio name as part of an offering that might not strictly adhere to the Istio code.

“I suppose it stops someone from saying that things like ‘Istio compliant’ when it’s not Istio anything,” Petrocelli wrote in an email to SDxCentral, though he did add, “Is that even a thing?”

Despite Google’s explanation, many have expressed confusion over the move suggesting that donating Istio to an already established open source group like the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) makes more sense.

“Maybe I’m just jaded after all of these years, but this seems like a way to make something seem like it has independent governance when it’s not,” Petrocelli added. “Consumers will hear that Istio (or anything else) is part of the Open Usage Commons organization and assume that means independent governance.”

Roy Illsley, chief analyst for Omdia, expressed similar bewilderment about the need for Google to form a new group to house Istio “and not work with existing open source organizations like CNCF. My view is that Google wants to make the point that open source is now enterprise-grade and to push its backed projects so that these can be used by a wide variety of third-party vendors in a way that allows greater control."

One significant vendor not happy with the move is IBM, which worked with Google and Lyft to establish Istio in mid-2017. In a curt blog post on the move, Jason McGee, VP and CTO of IBM’s Cloud Platform, wrote about his disappointment with Google’s decision.

“[The] announcement by Google of the creation of the Open Usage Commons is disappointing because it doesn’t live up to the community’s expectation for open governance,” McGee wrote. “An open governance process is the underpinning of many successful projects. Without this vendor-neutral approach to project governance, there will be friction within the community of Kubernetes-related projects.”

More damning, McGee explained that the move does not live up to what IBM thought were the eventual plans for Istio, which were to move it into the Linux Foundation-hosted CNCF.

“At the project’s inception, there was an agreement that the project would be contributed to the CNCF when it was mature,” McGee wrote. “IBM continues to believe that the best way to manage key open source projects such as Istio is with true open governance, under the auspices of a reputable organization with a level playing field for all contributors, transparency for users, and vendor-neutral management of the license and trademarks. Google should reconsider their original commitment and bring Istio to the CNCF.”

IBM was not alone with its sentiment.

“Istio is an increasingly important project for the Cloud Foundry ecosystem,” noted Cloud Foundry Foundation Director Chip Childers, in a statement to SDxCentral. “While we respect that Google has taken a step in the direction of making the project more open through the transfer of the Istio trademark, we continue to believe that the priority should be vendor-neutral governance of the project itself.”

For its part, CNCF struck a calming tone.

“Of course we were always expecting them to join and we still welcome them with open arms because this is about innovation and working together for the greater good,” CNCF Director Priyanka Sharma told SDxCentral in an interview. “I think at the end of the day, though, every company has to do what makes sense for them and what they want to do with their project. They've chosen to retain control of it and keep it. I don't necessarily think that's open source anymore or at least in the spirit of it. It's more like source available maybe or open core.”

Google has had a tight relationship with CNCF as it was the donation of Google’s open source code that led to the development of the Kubernetes project. That project was the initial driver for CNCF’s success in becoming a generally agreed safe waystation for open source projects.

The most recent CNCF annual user survey found that Istio was the most popular service mesh either being used or considered for deployment. The survey found that 69% of respondents were interested in Istio.

However, that survey also found strong support for the Linkerd service mesh platform that is part of the CNCF. And Sharma also highlighted ongoing work with the Service Mesh Interface (SMI) project that was recently adopted as a “sandbox” project at CNCF.

Sharma noted that while CNCF “really appreciates the collaboration that we’ve had with Google so far and expect that to continue,” there is no direct link to what’s happening with Istio. “It’s two separate conversations.”