--- title: When Big Companies Build on “Sand” | daily.dev description: A conversation excerpt discussing the risks of building products on top of open source technologies from companies that struggle to monetize their work. Docker... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/when-big-companies-build-on-sand--bhfz488pa twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: When Big Companies Build on “Sand” | daily.dev og:description: A conversation excerpt discussing the risks of building products on top of open source technologies from companies that struggle to monetize their work. Docker... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/when-big-companies-build-on-sand--bhfz488pa og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Bhfz488pa.png og:image:alt: When Big Companies Build on “Sand” og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # When Big Companies Build on “Sand” **[Ardan Labs \(YouTube\)](https://daily.dev/sources/ardanlabs-youtube)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A conversation excerpt discussing the risks of building products on top of open source technologies from companies that struggle to monetize their work. Docker and Terraform are cited as cautionary tales — both made foundational contributions but were slow to commercialize, allowing others to profit more from their innovations. Terraform eventually had to relicense, likely feeling forced into it. The broader concern is the fragility of depending on underfunded foundational tech. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why did HashiCorp change the Terraform license? HashiCorp relicensed Terraform after other companies commercialized and profited from it more than HashiCorp itself did for a long time, despite HashiCorp having done the core innovation. This left HashiCorp feeling forced to relicense after being late to monetize its own technology, a pattern also seen with Docker. _Anyone choosing infrastructure tools weighs licensing risk like this before betting on a vendor, a conversation worth following on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The Reality of Open Source: More Puppies, Less Beer](https://daily.dev/posts/the-reality-of-open-source-more-puppies-less-beer-geg0t55n2) · The New Stack · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Have less stuff](https://daily.dev/posts/have-less-stuff-llfkpnl7e) · RUBYLAND · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [The open source threat bringing back vendor lock-in](https://daily.dev/posts/the-open-source-threat-bringing-back-vendor-lock-in-spdwleq7y) · All Things Open · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Avoiding vendor lock-in through an open-source approach: a developer’s perspective](https://daily.dev/posts/avoiding-vendor-lock-in-through-an-open-source-approach-a-developer-s-perspective-853qco9xy) · The New Stack · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#docker](https://daily.dev/tags/docker), [#terraform](https://daily.dev/tags/terraform) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/when-big-companies-build-on-sand--bhfz488pa) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"When Big Companies Build on “Sand”","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/when-big-companies-build-on-sand--bhfz488pa","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/when-big-companies-build-on-sand--bhfz488pa"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T18:32:36.001Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:59:07.730Z","description":"A conversation excerpt discussing the risks of building products on top of open source technologies from companies that struggle to monetize their work. 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