When the OpenSSF, PyPI, Rust Foundation, and OpenJS recently declared that “Open Infrastructure Is Not Free,” they highlighted a crisis that affects every organization building modern software.
Behind every container image pulled, every vulnerability scan and every automated deployment, there’s a vast web of infrastructure: Package registries, CI/CD services, artifact repositories, security feeds, distribution networks and CDN layers. For decades, this infrastructure has been treated as an inexhaustible public good. But as usage grows exponentially – particularly with AI-driven development and automated tooling – the gap between consumption and support is widening dangerously.
The Invisible Backbone
Modern container security depends entirely on this open infrastructure. Vulnerability scanning requires up-to-date advisory feeds. Image distribution needs reliable registries. Global performance demands robust CDNs. When this foundation falters, everything built on top of it slows, fragments, or breaks.
The problem isn’t theoretical. It’s visible in slower builds, broken pipelines, and growing exposure across the software supply chain. Security weakens, development drags and reliability falters.
A Classic Tragedy of the Commons
The structural imbalance is clear: a small number of organizations and individuals fund and maintain core infrastructure, while heavy commercial users consume at a massive scale without contributing proportionally.
Usage is skyrocketing. Continuous integration pipelines pull images thousands of times daily. Security scanners query vulnerability databases constantly. AI agents generate automated dependency updates at unprecedented rates. Yet funding and governance mechanisms remain stuck in an earlier era, leaving critical infrastructure under-resourced and fragile. Without collective action, we face predictable consequences: degraded reliability, elevated security risks and stagnating innovation.
What Sustainable Stewardship Looks Like
Sustainable stewardship isn’t about paywalls or restricting access. It’s about shifting from passive consumption to active participation – a model where heavy users contribute more while light users retain open access and the ecosystem remains healthy. To put it simply: just do it and show up.
This requires several concurrent approaches:
Direct financial support: Commercial vendors benefiting from open infrastructure should contribute to foundations like CNCF and OpenSSF – not just with dues, but with engineering collaboration and standards work.
Usage-based contributions: Organizations should explore partnerships with infrastructure providers to channel funding based on actual consumption – registry pulls, scanning volumes and bandwidth usage.
Transparency: Companies should publish how they consume and support open infrastructure. Visibility creates accountability and enables industry-wide discussions about fair contribution models.
Governance innovation: The community needs new models that balance openness with sustainability – mechanisms that preserve access while ensuring adequate resources.
A Call to Action for Commercial Users
If your product or platform depends on open infrastructure, this is the moment to act. Don’t wait for service degradations or security incidents to force the conversation. Instead, demand transparency and accountability from your vendors up front – if it’s made a crucial item on the checklist of requirements for your investment, it will encourage expedient change.
The path forward is clear:
- Fund the projects and foundations your business relies on
- Contribute engineering time to critical infrastructure
- Partner directly with maintainers to understand their needs
- Be transparent about your usage patterns and support commitments
- Participate in development programs that advance the future of secure and open software development
The open infrastructure that enabled modern software development wasn’t built by magic, and it won’t sustain itself through goodwill alone. It requires active, proportional participation from those who benefit most.
The question isn’t whether commercial users should contribute more – it’s whether we’ll act proactively or wait until the infrastructure we depend on begins to fail. The choice we make will determine whether we preserve the open innovation engine that made our industry possible, or watch it collapse under its own weight.