# Building the Open Source Alternative to AWS

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-data-exchange-with-ben-lorica/building-the-open-source-alternative-to-aws
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-data-exchange-with-ben-lorica/building-the-open-source-alternative-to-aws.md
Podcast: [The Data Exchange with Ben Lorica](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-data-exchange-with-ben-lorica)
Published: 2026-02-19T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.buzzsprout.com/682433/episodes/18665015-building-the-open-source-alternative-to-aws.mp3
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.buzzsprout.com/682433/episodes/18665015-building-the-open-source-alternative-to-aws.mp3
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Duration seconds: 2992

## Resource

Ubicloud aims to break the closed ecosystem of major cloud providers by introducing an open-source control plane. The project focuses on transparency, portability, and high-performance managed services like Postgres that run on any infrastructure.

## Highlights
- Main idea: The 'Open Cloud' concept applies open-source principles to the cloud control plane, not just the underlying software
- Practical takeaway: Using Ubicloud's specialized Postgres implementation can provide significantly higher performance than standard RDS by leveraging local NVMe disks
- Failure mode: Relying on closed ecosystems like AWS or GCP leads to vendor lock-in and a lack of transparency in orchestration
- Strategic advantage: Portability allows third-party services, like Clickhouse, to build their own managed offerings using the Ubicloud control plane
- Market trend: The rise of AI and specialized workloads is driving a global phenomenon of cloud disaggregation and the need for flexible infrastructure

## Topics

Cloud Computing, Open Source, AWS Alternative, PostgreSQL, Infrastructure as a Service, Cloud Portability, Managed Databases, Ubicloud

## Chapters
- 1:00 — The Closed Ecosystem Problem: An analysis of how major cloud providers have evolved into closed, proprietary ecosystems that lack transparency.
- 4:40 — Defining the Open Cloud: The core principles of an open cloud: transparency, portability, and freedom from data lock-in.
- 8:20 — Open Source Storage and Infrastructure: How Ubicloud utilizes open-source components like MinIO to build its backend services.
- 12:00 — Achieving Performance and Cost Efficiency: Competing with hyperscalers by optimizing networking, compute, and bare metal utilization.
- 15:50 — The Shift Toward Managed Open Source: Discussing the industry-wide trend toward managed Postgres and open-source database services.
- 19:40 — Scaling and Customer Value: Insights into managing large-scale VM workloads and the primary drivers for customer adoption.
- 23:30 — High-Performance Managed Postgres: How running Postgres on local disks via Ubicloud outperforms traditional managed services like RDS.

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## Transcript

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