Kubernetes has revolutionized applications, and Salesforce Inc. is keeping up with the times by open-sourcing its Twelve Factor project off of the Heroku platform, a platform as a service that allows developers to create, deploy and manage applications entirely in the cloud.

Heroku created Twelve Factor over a decade ago. The company is open-sourcing it now in response to how containers and Kubernetes have changed app development.

Heroku CTO Gail Frederick talks about modernizing Twelve Factor.

“Twelve Factor is a set of principles for optimal app design in the cloud,” said Gail Frederick (pictured), Heroku chief technology officer at Salesforce. “Heroku has been curating and nurturing this community for 13 years. We believe, looking back in our experience, hosting millions of apps in the cloud, that most of the principles are durable, but some of them need to be modernized. So, we have open-sourced it as of this week; we have an initial set of maintainers, and we are inviting contributions from folks at KubeCon.” 

Frederick spoke with theCUBE Research’s Savannah Peterson and Rob Strechay at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed what is next for Twelve Factor and Heroku. (* Disclosure below.)

Modernizing Twelve Factor through Kubernetes

Twelve Factor was originally designed to provide a repeatable, straight-forward and portable way to run and deploy apps. Now, the project needs to be updated with greater security and total observability, according to Frederick.

“Heroku is replatforming on Kubernetes,” she said. “That’s a massive undertaking for us. Heroku platform predates all cloud standards so … we noticed that there was modernization to do so. It felt like a natural time to invite the community in here.”

The newly open-sourced Twelve Factor principles already have Amazon Web Services Inc. and Google LLC as some of its maintainers. Next, Heroku wants to find more maintainers and meet customer needs by helping them deploy a “constellation of services” instead of one service at a time, according to Frederick.

“It’s so exciting for our customers because they get the benefit of a Kubernetes platform,” she said. “We are able to provide … more variety for our customers, faster cold start. We are going to have a lot to say starting in December, and then I hope it’s rolling thunder from there on out.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA:

(* Disclosure: Salesforce Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Salesforce nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE