Why investors are starting to make big bets on Spinnaker, a Netflix-started software project that could be the next big thing in cloud computing

The first wave of cloud-computing startups focused on helping companies simply figure out how to operate in this new world of servers, rented from megaplayers like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure.

Early-stage investors believe the next wave will focus on helping companies maximize their potential across different cloud providers.

Originally developed at the cloud pioneer Netflix, Spinnaker is one such emerging open-source technology that is buzzing around the halls of enterprise-focused investors and WeWork lounges alike. Spinnaker is attracting a growing cast of large and small backers for its continuous integration and deployment technology, which helps software developers quickly and more easily push changes to apps running on a wide variety of cloud or on-premises servers.

According to project backers and venture capitalists, Spinnaker appears to be on the same trajectory that Kubernetes - the Google-created open-source technology that's become something of a standard in the cloud - was on just a few years ago.

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