Governance

CloudNativePG is now a CNCF Incubating project, and it is a long way from the days when running PostgreSQL in Kubernetes was called an anti-pattern. This is a personal look at the road that led here: a cloud native initiative started at 2ndQuadrant in 2019, its quality-first mindset, the long-term support of EDB after the acquisition and the open sourcing of the project, a rejected Sandbox application in 2022 and the decision we took at KubeCon Atlanta. It also explains what Incubation means for PostgreSQL on Kubernetes, how the project governance and maintainer team are evolving, and our plan to apply for Graduation in 2027.

This article compares CloudNativePG and Crunchy PGO, two of the most adopted open-source operators for running PostgreSQL on Kubernetes. It covers architecture, image design, backup strategy, major version upgrades, observability, licensing and community health. As a co-founder and maintainer of CloudNativePG, I make no claim to neutrality, and I say so upfront. What I can offer is informed bias, grounded in years of daily work on the project and a genuine respect for what Crunchy Data built in this space.