Akamai Cloud Credits for CNCF Projects ($1M Annual Pool)
Source: https://servicedesk.cncf.io/
Description
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+ 1 Akamai donates $1,000,000 annually in cloud credits to the CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) to support open-source projects with infrastructure for CI/CD, performance/conformance testing, artifact storage, and shared services. Credits are allocated by CNCF staff to maintainers of any CNCF project (Sandbox, Incubating, or Graduated). This is not a general developer freebie — only maintainers of accepted CNCF projects can claim. If you maintain a CNCF project, this is one of the easiest ways to offload your CI bill.
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+ 7 • Eligible: Maintainers of any official CNCF project at any maturity level — Sandbox, Incubating, or Graduated. Browse the full list at landscape.cncf.io.
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+ 8 • Not eligible: Personal projects, non-CNCF open-source projects, companies using CNCF projects, end users. If your project is not in the CNCF ecosystem, look at the Linux Foundation Open Source Partner Program instead, which has similar credits from Oracle and AWS for other LF projects.
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+ 9 • Code requirement: Anything you run on the credits must be 100% open source and must not contain sensitive data (no proprietary code, no production user data).
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+ 15 1. Confirm your project is officially a CNCF project (not just "cloud-native adjacent").
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2. Go to the CNCF ServiceDesk: servicedesk.cncf.io (redirects to cncfservicedesk.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/1). You will need an Atlassian account to log in.
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+ 17 3. Open a new ticket and describe your request. Include:
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+ 18 • Project name and link to its CNCF page
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+ 19 • Purpose of the infrastructure (e.g. "run nightly conformance tests for Kubernetes operator")
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+ 20 • List of desired services (e.g. compute instances, object storage, LKE Kubernetes clusters, networking)
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+ 21 • Rough monthly cost estimate in USD
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+ 22 • Who will administer the resources (which maintainer accounts need access)
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+ 23 4. Wait for CNCF staff to review and provision the resources on Akamai Cloud (formerly Linode). Allocation amounts are decided case-by-case based on need and budget availability.
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+ 24 5. Receive Akamai Cloud account access and start using the credits.
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+ 25
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+ 26 Important:
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+ 27 • There is no public form or self-service signup — every allocation goes through manual CNCF review.
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+ 28 • This is a B2B-style allocation, not a consumer credit. Treat it like applying for shared org infrastructure.
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• Akamai also runs a separate $100 / 60-day free trial for general developers — that's a different product (see linode_akamai_free_trial).
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+ 35 Credits can be applied to any Akamai Cloud (formerly Linode) service, including:
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+ 37 CategoryServices
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+ 38 ComputeShared/Dedicated/Premium CPU, High Memory, GPU instances (NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada, etc.)
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+ 39 KubernetesLKE (Linode Kubernetes Engine), LKE Enterprise
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+ 40 StorageObject Storage (S3-compatible), Block Storage volumes, Backups
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+ 41 NetworkingNodeBalancers, VPC, VLANs, DDoS protection, Cloud Firewall
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+ 42 DatabasesManaged MySQL, PostgreSQL
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+ 43 Edge / CDNAkamai's broader edge platform (subject to allocation scope)
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+ 45 See the full Akamai Cloud catalog at akamai.com/cloud/pricing.
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+ 51 CNCF enforces strict cost discipline on infrastructure credits across all providers (AWS, Oracle, Akamai/Linode):
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+ 53 • Soft cap of ~$3,000/month per project on AWS or Oracle (Akamai-specific cap not published, but expect a similar ballpark by default).
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+ 54 • Shut down resources that are not needed 24/7. Don't leave idle clusters running.
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+ 55 • Use automation to spin VMs up/down on a schedule.
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+ 56 • Use spot/preemptible instances where the workload tolerates it.
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+ 57 • CNCF can terminate provisioned resources and revoke access for fair-usage violations.
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+ 58 • During periods of high demand, CNCF may request voluntary downsizing.
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+ 60 Projects that exceed the soft cap should expect a conversation rather than auto-approval — be prepared to justify cost.
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+ 66 What CNCF projects actually do with these credits:
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+ 68 • Nightly conformance and end-to-end test suites that need real cloud resources
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+ 69 • Performance benchmarking at scale (multi-node clusters, network throughput tests)
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+ 70 • CI/CD runners for cross-platform builds (especially anything beyond what GitHub Actions free minutes cover)
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+ 71 • Artifact storage (container images, Helm charts, OCI artifacts, large test fixtures)
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+ 72 • Demo / sandbox environments for community contributors
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+ 73 • Release engineering infrastructure (signing servers, registries)
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+ 79 If you're a CNCF maintainer, you can also request via the same ServiceDesk:
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+ 80
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+ 81 • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure — multi-year $3M commitment, especially generous with Arm-based Ampere A1 compute, block storage, networking. Particularly useful for graduating projects.
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+ 82 • Amazon Web Services — credits for upstream testing and CI/CD, subject to the same $3K/month soft cap.
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+ 84 All three programs are managed through the same CNCF ServiceDesk workflow.
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+ 90 • Apply with a real plan, not a wish list. Allocations get approved faster when you specify exact services and concrete monthly burn.
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+ 91 • Multi-cloud strategy works. Many CNCF projects split workloads across AWS, Oracle, and Akamai depending on workload economics — Akamai is competitive on egress and Object Storage, Oracle Ampere is great for Arm CI.
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+ 92 • The donation is annual. $1M is a pool refreshed yearly — if you apply mid-year and the pool is depleted, you may be queued for the next cycle.
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+ 93 • Not for production user-facing workloads. This is OSS infrastructure for the project itself, not for hosting a SaaS that uses the project.
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+ 94 • For non-CNCF open-source projects, Akamai has a separate community program — check akamai.com/why-akamai/open-source for current offers.
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+ 98 Sources:
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+ 99 • CNCF Blog: Akamai Builds Cloud Native Resilience (2025-11-05)
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+ 100 • CNCF Contributor Resources — Cloud Credits
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+ 101 • CNCF ServiceDesk Portal
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+ 102 • Linux Foundation Project Partnerships
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+ 103 • Akamai Cloud Pricing
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+ 104 • Akamai Gold Member Announcement (CNCF)
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