9 Tools Big Tech Uses Internally (Now Open Source)

The article highlights a fascinating trend in the world of open-source software: tools that start as private repositories within companies and eventually get released to the public due to their significant value and utility. These tools often solve specific, challenging problems faced by large engineering teams and become indispensable once they are made available to others.

Here's a summary of the key points from the article:

1. Internal Origins: Many impactful open-source projects start as internal solutions developed within companies to address unique challenges.

2. Real-World Validation: These tools are battle-tested under real-world conditions before being released, ensuring they work reliably and efficiently.

3. High Maintenance Cost of Keeping Private: The decision to release these tools often comes from the realization that maintaining them privately is more costly than sharing them openly.

4. No Design for Adoption: Initially designed without consideration for external adoption, their success stems from genuine utility rather than marketing efforts.

5. Examples:

   • Backstage (by Spotify): An internal platform for managing microservices and CI/CD pipelines.
   • Temporal (by Stripe): A workflow orchestration system that ensures tasks are executed reliably.
   • Vitess (by YouTube): A scalable database clustering

Read the full article at DEV Community

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