OpenSearch reduces AWS dependency as self-hosted deployments rise

Five years after its creation, OpenSearch is demonstrating measurable progress in reducing its reliance on Amazon Web Services. Recent data from the OpenSearch Software Foundation reveals that AWS’s share of contributions has declined significantly, while independent organizations are increasingly choosing to run the software themselves rather than relying on managed cloud services.

What happened

The most significant structural change occurred in September 2024, when AWS transferred ownership of OpenSearch to the Linux Foundation. This move established the OpenSearch Software Foundation and placed the project under vendor-neutral governance. The primary goal was to assure other technology companies that they could contribute to the codebase without AWS retaining ultimate control over its strategic direction or licensing terms. This legal separation was designed to break the perception that OpenSearch was merely an AWS-controlled fork of Elasticsearch.

Two years after this transfer, new metrics suggest the strategy is yielding results. Figures provided to The New Stack show that AWS’s share of contribution activities across the project’s repositories has fallen from 91 percent in its first year to 72 percent in the 2025–26 period. Similarly, the number of maintainers affiliated with Amazon in the core repository has dropped from 95 percent in April 2022 to 71 percent today. While AWS remains the largest single contributor, the gap is narrowing as other entities begin to invest resources into the platform.

This shift in governance is mirrored by changes in how organizations deploy the software. Data from the 2026 Open Data Infrastructure Report, published last month by the Linux Foundation and the OpenSearch Software Foundation, indicates that self-managed deployments are growing faster than Amazon’s managed OpenSearch Service. Since 2024, the percentage of surveyed users running self-managed deployments in the cloud has risen from 37 percent to 60 percent. In contrast, usage of Amazon’s managed service saw a more modest increase, moving from 44 percent to 48 percent over the same timeframe.

Key details

• AWS’s share of contribution activities across OpenSearch repositories decreased from 91% to 72% between the project's first year and the 2025–26 period.
• Amazon-affiliated engineers now account for 71% of maintainers in the core repository, down from 95% in April 2022.
• Self-managed cloud deployments have grown to 60% of users, up from 37% in 2024, outpacing the growth of Amazon’s managed service.
• Despite these gains, 24% of non-adopters still cite concerns about vendor neutrality and historical ties to AWS as reasons for avoiding the platform.
• OpenSearch 3.9, released in September, includes enhancements for vector and hybrid search to support AI and retrieval-augmented generation workflows.
• AWS holds four of the 15 voting seats on the Technical Steering Committee, and an AWS employee was reelected as committee chair in October.

Background

OpenSearch originated in January 2021 as a direct response to Elastic’s decision to change the licensing model for Elasticsearch and Kibana. Elastic moved away from the Apache 2.0 license to a combination of proprietary and source-available licenses, aiming to prevent large cloud providers from offering Elasticsearch as a service without contributing back to the community. AWS, which had built a significant managed service around Elasticsearch, forked the last open-source version to create OpenSearch. For several years, the two projects coexisted, with Elastic eventually returning to open source by adding the AGPL license option, but OpenSearch continued to develop independently.

The recent push toward vendor neutrality addresses a common concern in enterprise infrastructure: lock-in. When a critical data platform is controlled by a single cloud provider, organizations worry that future pricing, feature roadmaps, or licensing changes could force costly migrations. By placing OpenSearch under the Linux Foundation, the project aims to function like other neutral open-source standards, where no single company can unilaterally change the license or close off the code. This structure is intended to give enterprises the confidence to build long-term applications on top of the search engine without fearing sudden strategic shifts by AWS.

Why it matters

For teams that run their own software, the rise in self-managed deployments signals a growing comfort with taking ownership of the search infrastructure. Running OpenSearch independently allows organizations to avoid the recurring costs of managed services and maintain greater control over performance tuning, security policies, and data residency. The fact that self-managed usage is outpacing managed service adoption suggests that more companies view OpenSearch as a stable, standalone component rather than just an AWS accessory. This trend supports the broader industry movement toward portable, cloud-agnostic infrastructure that can be deployed anywhere.

However, the lingering perception of AWS influence remains a barrier. With nearly a quarter of non-adopters citing vendor neutrality concerns, teams evaluating search technologies must look beyond the headline numbers. While the governance structure has changed, AWS still contributes the majority of code and holds key leadership positions. For IT leaders, this means that while the risk of abrupt license changes is legally mitigated, the technical roadmap may still reflect AWS priorities. Understanding this dynamic is crucial for making informed decisions about whether to adopt OpenSearch for critical enterprise workloads.

The integration of AI capabilities also plays a role in this evaluation. As OpenSearch enhances its support for vector and hybrid search, it positions itself as a foundational layer for retrieval-augmented generation systems. For companies building internal AI tools, having a search backend that is both powerful and vendor-neutral offers a strategic advantage. It ensures that the infrastructure supporting their AI applications remains accessible and modifiable, regardless of their relationship with any specific cloud provider.

What you can do

• Review your current search infrastructure contracts to identify opportunities for migrating from proprietary or heavily vendor-locked solutions to open alternatives.
• Evaluate the feasibility of self-managing OpenSearch in your cloud environment to reduce dependency on managed services and lower long-term operational costs.
• Monitor the OpenSearch Software Foundation’s governance reports to track the diversity of contributors and ensure the project maintains its vendor-neutral trajectory.
• Test OpenSearch 3.9’s vector search capabilities in a sandbox environment to assess its suitability for your organization’s AI and retrieval-augmented generation needs.
• Engage with the broader OpenSearch community through forums or local meetups to gain insights from other organizations that have successfully transitioned to self-managed deployments.
• Consider the total cost of ownership, including engineering effort for maintenance, when comparing self-managed OpenSearch against managed services from AWS or other providers.