The InfluxData Pivot: Inside Their Controversial Decision to Move Clustering to Enterprise
In March 2016, InfluxData faced a decision that would define their future: keep their clustering feature open source or move it to their enterprise offering. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, CEO Evan Kaplan revealed the inside story of this pivotal moment in their journey from open source darling to enterprise success.
The Existential Choice
“We had planned on keeping the clustering and the high availability in the open source, so that would make even a larger community, because that would be super powerful in the open source,” Evan explains. “But we were faced with kind of an existential threat as we couldn’t keep funding the company and building the database if we didn’t find a way to monetize.”
This wasn’t just another product decision. It was a fundamental question about survival and sustainability.
The Decision Process
Rather than making a unilateral choice, InfluxData embarked on an exhaustive consultation process. “By March of that year, Paul and I went through this incredible process with us, our investors. I talked to 15 different open source CEOs,” Evan recalls. This methodical approach helped them understand the broader implications of their choice.
The challenge was clear: building a sustainable business while maintaining their commitment to the open source community. The traditional model of selling support services wasn’t generating enough revenue to fund continued development.
Community Backlash
The decision sparked immediate controversy. “If you go back to hacker news at that time… Paul was taking so many shots over the bow for that decision,” Evan shares. The open source community, which had embraced InfluxData’s technology, felt betrayed by the move to commercialize a key feature.
Leadership Through Enrollment
What’s particularly instructive about InfluxData’s approach was their focus on building consensus rather than dictating changes. As Evan explains, “If I have to tell somebody to do something, I’ve already lost. So my view is I have to enroll people in whatever we’re doing, whatever big change, whatever pivot, whatever dynamic we’re doing.”
This philosophy of enrollment rather than enforcement helped them weather the storm of controversy and maintain team cohesion during a challenging transition.
The Multi-Pronged Solution
Instead of simply moving features behind a paywall, InfluxData developed a comprehensive approach to monetization: “We offer the product, we offer it in a serverless form in the cloud, so people can just pay you go serve. We offer a dedicated form in the cloud, and then we offer it on prem, so we offer it all three ways.”
This flexibility in deployment options helped soften the impact of the clustering decision, giving customers multiple paths to engage with the technology based on their needs and resources.
Lessons for Founders
The clustering decision offers several key insights for founders navigating similar challenges:
- Look beyond the immediate community reaction to long-term sustainability
- Build consensus through extensive consultation
- Create multiple paths to monetization
- Focus on enrollment rather than enforcement
As Evan reflects, “My philosophy after my three long stints as a CEO is if you can get 60-65% of the stuff you’re doing right, you’re going to have an amazing company.” This pragmatic approach to decision-making – accepting that not every choice will be universally popular – has helped InfluxData build a sustainable business while maintaining a vibrant open source community.
Today, with 1,900 customers and billions of data points processed daily, the controversial decision to move clustering to enterprise stands as a turning point in InfluxData’s journey. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most difficult decisions – the ones that spark the most controversy – are exactly what a company needs to survive and thrive.
For founders facing similar pivotal decisions, InfluxData’s story offers both a framework for decision-making and the courage to make tough choices when survival is at stake.