What Apache Mesos does

Apache Mesos is an open-source distributed systems kernel that abstracts CPU, memory, storage, ports, and GPU resources away from physical or virtual machines, treating an entire datacenter as a single pool of resources. Built using the same principles as the Linux kernel but at datacenter level of abstraction, Mesos provides fault-tolerant, elastic cluster management through a two-level scheduling architecture in which the master acts as a resource broker and frameworks (such as Marathon, Aurora, and Chronos) act as pluggable schedulers. The platform offers native containerization via the Mesos Containerizer and Docker Containerizer (supporting Docker, AppC, and OCI image formats without external daemon dependencies), HTTP APIs (v1 Scheduler, Executor, and Operator), high availability through replicated masters using ZooKeeper, CNI networking, CSI storage, GPU isolation for workloads such as TensorFlow, and modules for extensibility. Mesos is designed to run both cloud-native and legacy applications on the same cluster and is proven to scale to 10,000s of nodes running hundreds of thousands of containers.

The project was originally developed at Twitter by Benjamin Hindman based on UC Berkeley AMPLab research, contributed to The Apache Software Foundation in 2012-2013, became a top-level Apache project in 2013, and reached a major 1.0.0 milestone in July 2016. Production users historically included Twitter, Netflix, Uber, NASA JPL, Airbnb, eBay, and HubSpot. The project was retired and moved to the Apache Attic in 2022, with the final stable release being 1.11.0 in July 2018.

Mesos has no commercial product, pricing, or revenue model. It is distributed under the Apache License 2.0 by The Apache Software Foundation, a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit. There are no paid employees of the project, no funding rounds, no acquisitions, and no commercial support tier. The commercial entity most closely associated with Mesos was Mesosphere, which built DC/OS on top of the project and contributed the majority of code commits (62.8%), but Mesosphere is a separate organization and not the entity under analysis. Customer and community engagement is conducted through mailing lists, Slack, IRC, the @ApacheMesos Twitter account, a YouTube channel, the MesosCon conference series, and working groups covering Containerization, Performance, Community, and API.

Name

Apache Mesos

Legal name

Apache Mesos (The Apache Software Foundation)

Website

https://mesos.apache.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Closed

Short description

Apache Mesos is a retired open-source distributed systems kernel under The Apache Software Foundation that abstracts datacenter compute resources for fault-tolerant cluster management at 10,000s of nodes, historically serving hyperscalers like Twitter, Netflix, Uber, and NASA JPL.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cluster Resource Management

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computer Facilities Management Services (541513)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Modular/Composable Infrastructure (Compute Sleds, Disaggregated Systems) (HDACABAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Hyperscale & OCP Server Designs (HDABADAB)

Keywords

• Cluster resource management
• Distributed systems kernel
• Container orchestration
• Data center scheduling
• Workload isolation

Headquarters

HQ city

Wilmington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Personnel

Revenue model

1. Open Source Distribution: Apache Mesos is a free, open source software project governed by the Apache Software Foundation. There is no commercial product, subscription, or revenue stream associated with the project. The project has been retired and moved to Apache Attic.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Apache Mesos is an open-source distributed systems kernel that abstracts CPU, memory, storage, and other compute resources away from physical or virtual machines. It enables fault-tolerant and elastic distributed systems to be built and run effectively across datacenter and cloud environments. The Mesos kernel runs on every machine and provides applications such as Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, and Elasticsearch with APIs for resource management and scheduling. The project is freely available under Apache License 2.0 and has been retired and moved to Apache Attic.

Product overview

Apache Mesos is a single unified open-source distributed systems kernel that abstracts compute resources (CPU, memory, storage, ports, GPU) away from machines, enabling fault-tolerant and elastic distributed systems across datacenters and clouds. The core Mesos platform includes native containerization via the Mesos Containerizer and Docker Containerizer, HTTP APIs for schedulers, executors, and operators, and support for CNI networking and CSI storage. Optional Mesos Modules allow extending functionality through loadable shared libraries. The project has been retired by the Apache Software Foundation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Apache Mesos Distributed systems kernel that abstracts CPU, memory, storage, and other compute resources away from machines (physical or virtual), enabling fault-tolerant and elastic distributed systems to be built and run effectively across entire datacenter and cloud environments. Provides applications such as Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, and Elasticsearch with APIs for resource management and scheduling.
• Mesos Containerizer Default containerizer supporting both Linux and POSIX systems, providing native containerization with isolation for CPU, memory, disk, ports, and GPU. Supports container images.
• Docker Containerizer Containerizer for launching Docker images as Tasks or Executors; supports Docker volumes and Docker Remote API v1.21.
• Mesos HTTP APIs (v1 Scheduler, Executor, Operator) HTTP APIs for developing distributed applications, operating clusters, and monitoring; includes v1 Scheduler, v1 Executor, and v1 Operator APIs with versioned stability.

Quantifiable outcome

• Scale to 10,000s of nodes with hundreds of thousands of containers running without interruption for months at a time
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

Feature13 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• MesospherecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMesosphere was the primary commercial entity driving Mesos development and ecosystem growth. Co-founded by Mesos creator Benjamin Hindman, Mesosphere built DC/OS (Datacenter Operating System) on top of Mesos, created the Marathon framework, contributed the majority of code commits (62.8%), and sponsored the Mesos Slack workspace. Mesosphere also organized the MesosCon conference series and published community updates to help track Mesos activity.
• IBMmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIBM was among the leading organizations contributing code to the Mesos codebase, alongside Mesosphere and Microsoft. IBM contributed across multiple releases and was recognized as a top contributor organization. IBM is also listed among organizations that built platforms on Mesos.
• MicrosoftmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMicrosoft was among the leading organizations contributing code to the Mesos codebase, alongside Mesosphere and IBM. Azure Container Service (ACS) was built on Mesos to provide managed Mesos clusters on Microsoft Azure cloud.
• Azure Container Service (Microsoft)majorTechnology or IntegrationAzure Container Service (ACS) was a Microsoft Azure managed service providing pre-configured Mesos clusters on Azure cloud. It enabled Azure customers to deploy and manage Mesos-based container orchestration without manual cluster setup.
• DC/OS (by Mesosphere)majorTechnology or IntegrationDC/OS (Datacenter Operating System) is a complete platform built on Apache Mesos by Mesosphere, providing enterprise features including a graphical UI, service management, package management (Universe), and security enhancements on top of Mesos.
• NVIDIAmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNVIDIA worked closely with the Mesos project to add first-class GPU support, including the custom GPU isolator and integration with nvidia-docker functionality. Mesos 1.0 shipped with experimental GPU scheduling support for TensorFlow and deep learning workloads.
• CriteominorOthersCriteo sponsored the Slack standard plan for the Mesos community, providing the primary real-time communication platform for developers and users.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights1 record

Direct peers

• Kubernetes: The dominant open-source container orchestrator and Mesos's principal competitor in the same product category. Kubernetes won the same market Mesos was chasing, absorbing many of Mesos's capabilities (pluggable scheduling, custom resources, GPU support) and replacing Mesos at most major adopters.
• HashiCorp Nomad: A workload orchestrator with similar cluster-management scope to Mesos, supporting containers, standalone binaries, and Java applications. Targets the same multi-workload scheduling use case Mesos pioneered with its two-level scheduling model.
• Docker Swarm: Docker's built-in cluster management and orchestration mode, providing a simpler alternative to Mesos for container scheduling. Competed with Mesos in the same container orchestration product category during the 2014-2018 window.
• Apache YARN: Apache Hadoop's resource management and scheduling layer. Often compared alongside Mesos as a cluster resource manager, though YARN is focused on Hadoop workloads while Mesos is workload-agnostic. Both are now legacy technologies in the Kubernetes era.

Broad incumbents

• Red Hat OpenShift: Enterprise Kubernetes platform built on top of Kubernetes (the successor to Mesos-based offerings like Mesosphere DC/OS). Represents the broader enterprise-incumbent path that displaced Mesos in production deployments.
• Mesosphere DC/OS: The commercial platform built directly on Apache Mesos by Mesosphere (now D2iQ). DC/OS extended Mesos with enterprise features (UI, package management, security) and was the primary commercial vehicle for Mesos adoption. D2iQ has since pivoted to Kubernetes.
• Amazon ECS: AWS's managed container orchestration service. Competes with Mesos in the same product category but is integrated into the broader AWS ecosystem, representing the cloud-platform-incumbent approach to orchestration that displaced self-hosted Mesos clusters.
• Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE): Google Cloud's managed Kubernetes service and the original reference deployment of Kubernetes. GKE's success is directly linked to Kubernetes displacing Mesos in cloud-native deployments.

Emerging players

• Cloud Foundry: An application Platform-as-a-Service layer originally built on top of Mesos (among other schedulers). Cloud Foundry's later versions adopted Kubernetes, illustrating the broader migration of orchestration platforms away from Mesos.

Others

• Rancher Labs (now SUSE Rancher): Container management platform that previously included a Mesos integration. Now focused on Kubernetes management, illustrating the ecosystem's broader consolidation around Kubernetes at the expense of Mesos support.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/apachemesos
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC0wxLxgX8ilUn0m31lCpzAw

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Apache Mesos