CNCF

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation, or CNCF, is part of the Linux Foundation and provides a neutral home for open-source cloud-native projects. CNCF hosts and supports technologies that underpin modern containerized and distributed application environments, including Kubernetes and numerous security, observability, networking and developer-platform projects. The foundation does not operate like a commercial cybersecurity vendor; instead, it supports an ecosystem of open-source projects, maintainers and contributors. Security is an important part of this ecosystem because cloud-native infrastructure introduces new risks around containers, identities, software supply chains, orchestration and network policy. CNCF projects include technologies that help organizations secure Kubernetes clusters, manage network traffic, scan containers, enforce policies and improve software supply-chain visibility. The foundation also supports security-focused initiatives, community education and best practices for cloud-native environments. Enterprises use CNCF technologies to build and operate applications across public clouds, private infrastructure and hybrid environments. Its ecosystem includes major cloud providers, software vendors, developers and enterprise users. Its importance comes from the large number of production systems built on CNCF projects and the security tooling available through that ecosystem. Organizations evaluating CNCF should distinguish the foundation itself from individual projects and commercial companies that contribute to or build products around those projects.