Amazon EC2 is an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platform that allows the rapid deployment and scaling of virtualized compute resources. Amazon EC2 was chosen due to prior familiarity with the platform and the easily configured OS images and network security protocols. Amazon EC2 is proprietary which is less permissive than the other licenses used in this product offering no rights to modify or extend the service beyond what is already provided.
Debian Linux was chosen due to its popularity resulting in extensive documentation as well as its reputation for being quite stable. Since Debian is the foundation for other Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, it makes it easy to standardise around this distribution. Since Debian is a collection of various free software packages, a wide array of licenses are used though free software licenses are encouraged.
Docker was chosen due to it being used extensively in the deployment of modern web applications. The advantages of virtualizing application software allows for them to be isolated from each other as well as running libraries and dependencies within containers which are updated with the target application to ensure that updates to various libraries don’t break application software. Docker uses the Apache 2.0 license.
Zulip is a team chat platform similar to platforms such as Slack. Self-hosting such a platform offers key advantages such as not being compelled to adhere to another organisation’s terms of use and greater data sovereignty. Self-hosted instances are also resilient to changes in software licensing as they can be forked and maintained from a build under an existing license. Zulip uses the Apache 2.0 license.
In context the Apache 2.0 license offers several key advantages suited to the chosen software stack. This license allows for the commercial use of licensed software which is appropriate for businesses which would prefer to keep their confidential data from being harvested. This license is an open-source license which permits users to freely modify and distribute modified copies of the software. An advantage Apache 2.0 offers over other open source licenses is it allows the modified software to be placed under a closed source proprietary license for future sale. A key liability for the Apache 2.0 license in a business setting is the license prohibits holding the contributors liable for damages even in the instance of a damaging software update.
SPDX short identifier: Apache-2.0
Read the Apache 2.0 license here:
Rather than a typical software license, Amazon EC2 is governed by the AWS terms of service agreement. The AWS terms of service agreement being a more strict and proprietary service has provisions for how the service may be used to curb abuse of the platform.
Read the Amazon AWS service terms here: