Bianca Lewis, Executive Director, OpenSearch Software Foundation, discusses India’s growing role in open source innovation, the rise of AI-powered search and analytics, opportunities for developers and GCCs, and why OpenSearch is positioning itself as a foundational data layer for the AI era.
Some edited excerpts:
India accounts for a significant share of global open-source contributors. What advice would you give Indian developers looking to make a greater impact in the open-source ecosystem?
India is one of the most exciting markets for open source today. The growth in AI investments, startups, and digital innovation is unmatched. By 2030, India is expected to emerge as a major AI investment hub, creating tremendous opportunities for developers and enterprises alike.
My advice to Indian developers is to actively participate in open-source communities, not just as users but as contributors. Open-source projects provide a pathway to build skills, gain visibility, and establish professional credibility on a global stage. What excites me most about OpenSearchCon India is the opportunity to engage directly with this vibrant community. India has an enormous pool of talent, and open source provides a platform to showcase that talent globally.
How do you see OpenSearch contributing to India’s AI and technology ecosystem?
OpenSearch has evolved into a critical data layer for modern AI applications. Organisations today often use separate platforms for observability, security, search, and AI applications, creating data silos and increasing costs. OpenSearch offers an opportunity to consolidate these capabilities on a single open platform. This reduces licensing costs, simplifies management, and provides a unified foundation for building AI-driven applications.
For Indian enterprises, this is particularly important. Many organisations are looking to scale AI initiatives while maintaining data sovereignty, controlling costs, and reducing dependence on proprietary platforms. OpenSearch addresses these challenges by providing an open, flexible, and enterprise-ready infrastructure.
Open source adoption in enterprises often raises concerns around support and governance. How is OpenSearch addressing these challenges?
One of the biggest concerns we heard from enterprises was the need for long-term support and reliable vendor backing. To address this, OpenSearch introduced Long-Term Support (LTS) releases, providing organisations with stable versions supported for at least 18 months. This enables enterprises to build mission-critical applications with greater confidence.
In addition, we’ve developed an ecosystem of more than 100 vendors globally. Through certification and accreditation programs, these partners can provide enterprise-grade support and services around OpenSearch deployments.
This gives organisations the flexibility of open source while ensuring they have access to the support and expertise they require.
What is OpenSearch’s vision for India over the next few years?
Our immediate focus is to help Indian organisations adopt OpenSearch confidently and at scale. Beyond technology adoption, we also see a significant opportunity in talent development. AI is transforming the software industry, and many developers are questioning how their careers will evolve in an AI-driven world.
OpenSearch can help create a clear pathway for skill development through certifications, community participation, and hands-on contributions. Developers can build expertise at the data and systems level, which will remain critical even as AI automates many coding tasks.
At a broader level, we want to help Indian companies showcase their innovation globally. India is no longer just a technology services hub; it is increasingly becoming a source of world-class digital products and platforms. OpenSearch can serve as a vehicle to amplify those success stories on the global stage.
Do you see Global Capability Centres (GCCs) playing a significant role in the OpenSearch ecosystem?
Absolutely. India’s GCC ecosystem is becoming increasingly important in driving global technology innovation. Many multinational organisations are building core products and platforms from their India operations.
To support this, OpenSearch has launched certification and education programs designed specifically to help organisations build expertise and demonstrate competency. These programs provide structured learning paths and professional recognition for teams working on OpenSearch-based solutions.
We are also conducting one of the largest research initiatives in the history of the OpenSearch Foundation to better understand the challenges organisations face and identify opportunities to support them more effectively.
A large percentage of Indian startups are already using open-source AI technologies. How is OpenSearch positioning itself in this rapidly evolving landscape?
AI is a major focus area for OpenSearch. Recent releases have significantly enhanced our AI capabilities, making it easier for developers to build AI-powered search applications, observability platforms, and agentic AI systems.
We’ve improved vector search performance, expanded integrations with technologies such as OpenTelemetry and Prometheus, and introduced capabilities that enable organisations to better monitor and manage AI workloads.
One particularly important area is agentic AI. We are enabling richer context and memory capabilities that allow AI agents to operate more effectively over longer periods, making them significantly more useful for real-world enterprise applications.
For startups, this means they can build sophisticated AI solutions on an open platform without incurring the costs and constraints associated with proprietary ecosystems.
What kind of momentum are you seeing for OpenSearch in India today?
India is one of the most active regions in the OpenSearch community. Globally, OpenSearch has surpassed 1.7 billion downloads, and India contributes a significant share of that activity. While open-source adoption makes it difficult to determine the exact number of organisations using the platform, we are seeing strong engagement from developers, enterprises, startups, and community groups across the country.
Our next priority is encouraging more Indian companies to become active participants in the OpenSearch Foundation. We want Indian organisations not only to use OpenSearch but also to influence its future direction through deeper involvement in the community and governance processes.
What opportunities do you see in India’s public sector and digital public infrastructure ecosystem?
India has built one of the world’s most impressive digital public infrastructure ecosystems, and open source has played a major role in that success. We see tremendous potential for OpenSearch in government initiatives and public-sector projects. Many government organisations are actively looking to reduce dependence on proprietary software while maintaining scalability, security, and cost efficiency.
As a foundation, we are eager to engage with public-sector stakeholders and explore opportunities for collaboration. We have seen successful engagements with governments in other parts of the world, and we believe there is significant potential for similar partnerships in India.
The combination of India’s digital public infrastructure, open-source adoption, and AI ambitions creates a unique opportunity for innovation at scale.