The Eclipse Cloud DevTools

Ecosystem: Defining the Future

of Cloud Native Software
Development
White Paper
2 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

The Eclipse Cloud DevTools

Working Group offers a vendor-neutral
ecosystem of open source projects
focused on defining, implementing,
and promoting best-in-class web and
cloud-based development tools.

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3 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

Open Source Software Accelerates

Migration of Developer Tools to the Cloud

O 
ver the past two decades, most relevant business applications have been migrated to
the cloud. More recently, there’s growing awareness that the cloud is also an innovation
platform that accelerates software development.1,2

It’s now well understood that with cloud-based IDEs and
tools, developers can more efficiently migrate and build
applications than they can with desktop tools. Cloud
native tools also enable large and diverse developer
teams to share the same configuration and runtime
environments, increasing productivity and reducing,
if not eliminating, setup times.
So why has adoption of cloud-based developer tools
lagged behind other types of cloud migration? A
number of commercial businesses certainly recognized
the potential early on. The problem was those early-
stage cloud development tools were mostly proprietary
solutions that came with restrictions and limitations
that didn’t meet market needs and expectations.
1 Cloud’s trillion-dollar prize is up for grabs, McKinsey Quarterly, February 26, 2021.
For many enterprises, using proprietary cloud
development tools doesn’t make sense because the
tools don’t provide adequate flexibility or control over
the development ecosystem. The flexibility to adapt
tools to domain-specific requirements increases
developer efficiency. And control over the development
ecosystem mitigates critical risks associated with
developer tools that are often the backbone of business
models and the resulting intellectual property.
For these and other reasons, open source software
is key for cloud native software development.
Recognizing this fact, several leading organizations
joined forces in the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working
Group to create open source alternatives, and to build
and support the ecosystem.

2 The Cloud as an Innovation Platform for Software Development, Communications of the ACM, October 2019.
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4 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

Industry Leaders Collaborate to Build

an Open Cloud Development Ecosystem

T 
he Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working Group is a diverse group of members that includes
globally recognized technology leaders as well as smaller organizations — all focused
on open source developer tools and software innovation. Founding members include
Broadcom, EclipseSource, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Red Hat, SAP, and TypeFox, among others.

Initially, the working group’s primary focus was to
identify common issues and how these issues might
be resolved, with the ultimate goal of making life
easier for developers through more efficient cloud
development options. When the working group was
formally announced in October of 2019, Brad Micklea,
then VP of Developer Tools and Advocacy at Red Hat,
confirmed the need to leverage open source software
to streamline and accelerate cloud development.
“Developers today are building applications for the
hybrid cloud,” said Micklea. “They are focused on
the speed of collaboration and development in order
to out-flank their competitors. However, the hybrid
cloud operating environment can be complex, with
Kubernetes, containers, microservices, and service
meshes adding a host of new considerations to
application design and implementation. Red Hat is
working with the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working
Group to provide new open source alternatives to these
technology stacks while giving developers the tools
they need to get their software to market faster.”

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5 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

History Is Repeating Itself

in the Best Possible Way “The breadth, depth, and
According to Dr. Jonas Helming, principal software
diversity in the Eclipse cloud
architect and general manager of EclipseSource, the
development ecosystem
Eclipse Foundation was the logical place to create an
make it the place to be for
ecosystem around cloud development tools.
any person or organization
“For almost 20 years, the Eclipse Foundation ecosystem with a vested interest in
around the Eclipse IDE has been the biggest alternative next-generation cloud native
to closed developer tools,” he says. “There is currently development.”
no comparable ecosystem for cloud development tools
— Tim deBoer, Senior Principal
and I foresee the Eclipse Cloud DevTools ecosystem
Software Engineer at Red Hat
making a similar impact as we move more development
tools and concepts to the cloud.”

Tim deBoer, a senior principal software engineer at

Red Hat, was the cloud developer experience lead
architect at IBM when the working group was first
created. He also draws a parallel to the success of
the Eclipse IDE ecosystem by pointing out that the
vendor neutral governance at the Eclipse Foundation
enables success. Organizations in any market, even
competitors, can freely collaborate on new technology
development, with each company providing a different
piece of the overall solution.

“By pooling our resources, everyone in the ecosystem

can achieve more,” says deBoer. “The breadth, depth,
and diversity in the Eclipse cloud development
ecosystem make it the place to be for any person or
organization with a vested interest in next-generation
cloud native development.”

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6 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

Flexible, Open Source Technologies

Streamline and Accelerate Cloud Development

P 
rojects hosted and nurtured by the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working Group provide
open source technologies that are the basis for building enterprise cloud development
products. Each of the project technologies can be used individually or together. And
they can be adapted to suit the adopter organization’s environment and developer requirements.
This flexibility allows adopter organizations to go well beyond the potential they can achieve
with proprietary, single-vendor cloud development tools.

Eclipse Cloud DevTools Landscape

Here’s a brief overview of
the current projects in the Extension Marketplace
Cloud DevTools ecosystem,
Web IDE
their relationships to one
another, along with use Dev Tools

cases and commercial

adoption exam ples. Sprotty

Figure 1 loosely illustrates Che4z

working group projects

and the high - leve l GLSP IDE Technologies

functional focus areas of Container Deployment Tools

Function Specific Tools
each project.

Figure 1: Projects in the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Ecosystem

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7 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

Eclipse Theia: The Open Source

Alternative to Visual Studio Code
Eclipse Theia is an extensible platform that allows
companies to develop their own multi-language
cloud and desktop IDEs using a single, open source
technology stack. The software combines many of
the great user interface features in Visual Studio (VS)
Code with a more modular architecture that enables
far more customizations than VS Code.

Eclipse Theia is the basis for well-known industry

offerings, including:

• ARM Mbed Studio

• Arduino Pro IDE

• Google Cloud Shell

• SAP Business Application Studio

Eclipse Che eliminates
the workspace
Eclipse Che: A Kubernetes-Native configuration complexities
IDE for Cloud Native and challenges with
Application Development Kubernetes-native
Eclipse Che eliminates the workspace configuration development so it’s faster
complexities and challenges with Kubernetes-native and easier for developer
development so it’s faster and easier for developer teams to build cloud native
teams to build cloud native applications. Che also
applications.
leverages Theia software to provide an in-browser
VS Code experience, and is the basis for well-known
industry offerings, including: Eclipse Che4z, is a lightweight, hosted IDE based on
Eclipse Che. With Che4z, it’s faster and easier for
• IBM Cloud Pak for Applications
the new generation of developers to get involved in

• Red Hat OpenShift + CodeReady Workspaces mainframe application development. Che4z is the
basis for Broadcom’s CA Brightside, a DevOps solution
• SAP Hana Cloud
that enables development teams to control, script, and
develop cloud-based apps for mainframes.

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8 Eclipse Foundation White Paper
Eclipse Open VSX: A Vendor
Neutral Marketplace for
Visual Studio Code Extensions
Eclipse Open VSX provides a free marketplace for VS
Code extensions that can be used with any technology
or tool that supports them, including VS Code. Because
the Open VSX source code is open to all, anyone can
adopt, adapt, and enhance the marketplace. Developers
can contribute improvements to the marketplace, and
organizations can host an internal extension registry
for the exclusive use of their developers.
The Open VSX Registry is the default extension
marketplace for Eclipse Theia, Gitpod, and VSCodium.
3 OutSystems press release, December 4, 2019.
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It can be easily defined as the default extension registry
for any technology or tool that supports VS Code
extensions.
For more insight into why industry leaders are moving
beyond walled gardens to embrace Open VSX, read the
Open VSX Registry white paper.
Options for Extending the
Cloud Development Ecosystem
Open up Even More Possibilities
The Eclipse Cloud DevTools ecosystem includes a
diverse set of technologies that extend and build on the
capabilities delivered by Eclipse Theia and Eclipse Che:
• Eclipse Codewind extends industry-standard
IDEs with features to write, debug, and deploy
cloud native applications. Codewind can be used
with the Eclipse IDE and Eclipse Che, as well as
VS Code and IntelliJ.
• Eclipse Dirigible is a low-code cloud development
platform that leverages an in-system programming
model and rapid application development
techniques to support the full development life
cycle of on-demand applications. According to
global research and advisory company, Gartner,
by 2024, three-quarters of large enterprises will
be using at least four low-code development
tools for IT application development and citizen
development initiatives. And low-code application
development will be responsible for more than 65
percent of application development activity.3
• Eclipse EMF.cloud is a set of software tools and
components that support developing domain-
specific tools, data-centric tools, and modeling
9 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

tools in the cloud. EMF.cloud provides a migration
path for existing tool chains based on EMF and
can be used to build cloud-based tools from the
ground up.
• Eclipse GLSP is an extensible graphical language
server platform (GLSP) to build custom, web-
based diagram editors. The diagram editors
can be used on their own or integrated into web-
based IDEs such as Eclipse Theia and VS Code.
Foundry targets. Eclipse Tools for Cloud Foundry
helps users deploy and test applications on Cloud
Foundry targets from within the Eclipse IDE.
Eclipse Cloud DevTool
Technologies Solve
Real-World Problems
Leading companies are putting their trust and names
behind open source cloud development technologies
hosted at the Eclipse Foundation. They’re using these

• Eclipse JKube provides a collection of plug- technologies for a variety of purposes and to solve

ins and libraries for building container images myriad problems, including:

using Docker, Jib (Docker-less), and S2I build

• Workspace and container management,
strategies. JKube simplifies cluster deployments
as demonstrated in Red Hat CodeReady
for cloud native applications.
Workspaces and OpenShift

• Eclipse Orion provides components, services,

• Embedded application development, as
and libraries for building web-based development
demonstrated in Arm Mbed Studio and Arduino
tools. Orion includes browser client infrastructure
Pro IDE
built using web technologies, such as HTML,
JavaScript, and CSS, as well as the server-side • Mainframe application development, as

infrastructure needed by such development demonstrated in Broadcom CA Brightside

tools. • Task-based development environments, as

• Eclipse Sprotty offers a web-based diagramming demonstrated in Gitpod

framework that’s ideal for visualizing code, similar
type hierarchies, component dependencies, and
other relationships. Sprotty can be used on its
own, or combined with Eclipse Theia, Eclipse
Xtext, Eclipse LSP4J, and Eclipse Layout Kernel
(ELK).
• Modeling and domain-specific tools with
technologies such as Eclipse GLSP, EMF.cloud,
and Eclipse Sprotty that have been used by
companies such as EclipseSource and TypeFox
in numerous projects

• Eclipse Tools for Cloud Foundry provides

an extensible framework and common user
interface to deploy applications to different Cloud

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10 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

A Vendor Neutral, Community-Based

Approach to Open Source Software
Offers Unique Benefits to Adopters

I 
t’s important to note that all “free” software is not created equal. Free doesn’t necessarily
mean there are no restrictions or risks associated with using the software. Depending on
the provider and how the software is licensed, there may be legal limitations around using
or making code changes as well as around intellectual property management. Software quality
and reliability are also important considerations. If structured processes were not applied during
development, the software may not be suitable
for enterprise or commercial use.

Enterprises and developers considering an open source

All “free” software
approach to cloud development tools should be aware
is not created
of the differences between truly open source, vendor
equal. Free doesn’t
neutral software that’s developed in a structured and
well-governed way and software that’s simply free. To
necessarily mean
provide more insight into the key characteristics that
there are no
define truly open source software, let’s take a closer restrictions or risks.
look at two areas where the projects hosted at the

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11 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

Eclipse Foundation provide unique benefits: The same is not true for VS Code or the Visual Studio
Marketplace.
• Licensing
While the VS Code repository on GitHub includes
• Vendor neutral governance
open source code under the MIT license, the VS Code
For purposes of this discussion, we’ll compare Eclipse distribution is released under a proprietary Microsoft
policies around Theia and Open VSX with Microsoft product license. This makes it difficult for companies
policies around VS Code and the Visual Studio and communities other than Microsoft to use VS Code
Marketplace. in their own products. Under the terms of use for the
Visual Studio Marketplace, only Microsoft VS products
Eclipse Foundation
can access and use the extensions.
Licensing Gives Developers
Complete Freedom and Flexibility The Microsoft VS Code license also indicates the

Anyone who adopts Eclipse Theia or Eclipse Open VSX software may collect information about how the

can adapt, customize, and optimize the technologies software is used and who is using it, then send that

for their own use and for commercial purposes. All data to Microsoft. The license makes it clear you can

Eclipse Foundation hosted project technologies opt out of many telemetry data collection scenarios,

are provided under the Eclipse Public License, a but not all.

commercial-friendly, open source license approved

Vendor Neutral Governance
by the Open Source Initiative.
Gives Developers Influence
Over Technology Evolution
The Eclipse Foundation has invested significant
time and effort into developing structured processes
and governance around community-based software
development. For nearly two decades, these
policies have proven to enable effective community
collaboration and commercial success, even among
competitors.

The vendor neutral hosting and governance at the

Eclipse Foundation allows all community members
to contribute to the code base and influence the way
technologies evolve. This provides a level playing
field, with no single community member having more
influence or control over the software than any other
member.
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12 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

In contrast, VS Code and the Visual Studio Marketplace
are completely controlled by Microsoft. While
developers and marketplace users can provide input
into software evolution, Microsoft makes all final
decisions. Anyone who relies on VS Code and the
Visual Studio Marketplace is dependent on Microsoft
to continue supporting product evolution.
hobby for them. They are dedicated to ensuring the
software they and their colleagues build on is stable
and bug-free.
The Eclipse Foundation’s working group model also
provides a highly effective support structure to
everyone in the ecosystem. As developers need help
or have questions, they have direct access to a broad

Community Collaboration range of technology experts who are also often the

Leads to Better Software people that contributed or committed the code. This

When developers with different mandates, skill sets, is not often the case with single-vendor software.

and experience collaborate to advance open source

software, those who adopt the software enjoy benefits
they could not achieve on their own. Building on, and
customizing, an existing code base jump starts and
accelerates development efforts. It also reduces
software maintenance requirements and costs
because maintenance responsibilities are shared by
community members.

Furthermore, because the software is developed by

a diverse range of innovative and highly motivated
contributors, it reflects a broader set of interests,
goals, and expertise. The software includes
contributions that go beyond the scope and skill sets
a single company typically possesses. As a result,
the software is more likely to meet developer and
corporate requirements than software developed by Because the software is
a single entity. developed by a diverse
range of innovative
Open source projects hosted at the Eclipse Foundation
and highly motivated
also benefit from community feedback and bug
reports that lead to continuous improvements in
contributors, it reflects a
software quality. Many developers at the Eclipse
broader set of interests,
Foundation represent their employers’ interests and goals, and expertise.
contribute as part of their job. It’s far more than a

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13 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

Put the Eclipse Cloud DevTools

Ecosystem to Work for Your Business

T 
he Eclipse Cloud DevTools ecosystem offers an opportunity for anyone with an interest
in cloud native development to collaborate on cloud tool innovation. With the depth
and breadth of technologies and members, synergies among projects are naturally
identified, exploited, and expanded for the benefit of all participants. There’s also a natural
connection to the broader Eclipse Foundation community, home to more than 400 open source
software projects and numerous technology ecosystems.

There are many advantages to participating in the open There are benefits for all participants, whether they are
source community, including new opportunities to build individuals or organizations:
relationships. Cloud DevTools Working Group members
• Individuals gain easy access to a supportive
and ecosystem participants learn from one another,
network of technical experts with whom they can
while developing personal and strategic business
collaborate and exchange ideas.
relationships along the way.
• Smaller organizations can increase their visibility,
while leveraging a broad community to get
products to market more quickly.

• Larger organizations benefit from the increased

agility enabled by the open source model.

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14 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

Get Involved
There are many ways to get involved in the Cloud DevTools
community. Simply choose the level of involvement that fits
your business needs today then adapt your involvement
as your strategic and operational goals evolve:

• Explore Cloud DevTools projects to discover open

source technologies you can use and contribute to.

• Report bugs and request enhancements to the

software.

• Sign a contributor agreement to fix bugs and

implement enhancements.

• Become an Eclipse Foundation member and join

the Cloud DevTools Working Group to help shape
its direction and strategic focus areas.

• Contribute a new project to the Cloud DevTools

ecosystem.

Benefits of
Eclipse Foundation Membership
All Eclipse Foundation members benefit from:

• Proven processes and best practices for open

source software development

• Intellectual property management and licensing

services that enable entrepreneurial collaboration
and commercialization of open source software

• Mentorship, guidance, and expertise in creating and

managing open source projects and in community
building and support

• Marketing services that increase project visibility

within the broader Eclipse Foundation ecosystem
and beyond
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15 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

Learn More
Discover the benefits of the getting involved in the Eclipse Cloud DevTools ecosystem:

• To learn more about the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working Group and our projects, explore our website.

• To learn more about the benefits of becoming an Eclipse Foundation member, visit our membership page.

Members

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16 Eclipse Foundation White Paper

About the Eclipse Foundation

The Eclipse Foundation provides its global community of individuals and organizations a
mature, scalable, and business-friendly environment for open source software collaboration
and innovation.
The Foundation is home to the Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE, and more than 400 open source
projects, including runtimes, tools, and frameworks for cloud and edge applications, IoT, AI,
automotive, systems engineering, distributed ledger technologies, open processor designs, and
many others.
The Eclipse Foundation is a not-for-profit organization supported by more than 330 members,
including industry leaders who value open source as a key enabler for their business strategies.
To learn more, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, or visit eclipse.org.

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