Strategy · Community

Vision & Mission

WAF++ is a community-driven, vendor-neutral framework built from real-world experience. Our goal: make architecture quality, governance, and sovereignty in cloud and multi-cloud environments transparently assessable and continuously improvable.

Vendor-neutral Community-driven Open source
WHY

Why WAF++?

Three structural gaps in the existing landscape that WAF++ was built to close.

Engineering-first

Best practices are often context-free. WAF++ focuses on transparent criteria, evidence, and trade-offs — so decisions remain reproducible across teams.

Provider-independent

WAF++ defines principles, reference models, and controls — regardless of whether you run AWS, Azure, GCP, on-premises, or hybrid combinations.

Transparency by design

Decisions are discussed, documented, and versioned publicly via RFCs, reviews, and the roadmap. This makes the framework auditable and community-ready.

VISION

Our Vision

Organizations should be able to evaluate cloud architectures in a multi-cloud reality — clearly, transparently, and independently of marketing narratives. WAF++ provides a shared lens of pillars, criteria, and reference models.

“Traceability instead of gut feeling. Criteria instead of buzzwords.”
— WAF++ Principle
MISSION

Our Mission

Four concrete deliverables that turn the vision into engineering reality.

Assessment

A shared assessment model

Guiding questions and criteria for architecture quality — including what evidence (artifacts, policies, ADRs, metrics) makes an answer robust.

Scoring

Maturity & scoring (transparent)

A maturity and scoring model built step by step — not a black box, but transparent rules that teams can iteratively improve.

Patterns

Reference models & patterns

Reusable patterns, anti-patterns, and reference architectures — including trade-offs and operational considerations consolidated from real projects.

Governance

Community & governance

Working Groups, Maintainers, and the TSC ensure quality and consistency. Decisions are transparent, documented, and publicly discussed.

POSITIONING

How WAF++ positions itself

WAF++ is not a replacement for provider frameworks — it is the neutral layer between them.

WAF++ vs. provider frameworks

Provider frameworks are valuable — but often product-centric. WAF++ complements them with vendor-neutral criteria, governance, and sovereignty considerations.

WAF++ & CNCF alignment

Governance and community structure are inspired by proven open-source models such as CNCF: Working Groups, RFCs, and radical transparency.

WAF++ & audits

WAF++ is audit-friendly: criteria are documented, decisions traceable, and improvements can be versioned — making it compliance-ready by design.

PRINCIPLES

Guiding principles

Four non-negotiables that shape every decision in the WAF++ framework — from content to governance.

Vendor-neutral & open
No product lock-in. Decisions are principle-based.
Traceable
Criteria, evidence, trade-offs — documented and reproducible.
Practical
Experience from operations, projects, and audits matters.
Transparent governance
Public discussions and clear roles and decisions.
NOW

Where we start

At project launch, Pillar 2 (Cost Optimization) and Pillar 7 (Sovereign) are the first active pillars. Governance, community processes, and roadmap rituals are being built in parallel.

Available

Cost Optimization

Make costs visible, increase efficiency, and allocate resources deliberately. The first fully documented pillar.

Go to pillar →
Available

Sovereign

Digital sovereignty, data control, exit capability, and regulatory alignment across cloud environments.

Go to pillar →
Community

Get involved

Working Groups, reviews, use cases, sessions — we build in the open. No minimum contribution required.

How to join →
SHAPE THE FUTURE

Help shape WAF++.

Share use cases, provide feedback, or contribute in Working Groups — WAF++ thrives on real-world practice and community input.

COMING SOON · 12 MAY 2026
WAF++ 1.0
incl. WAFPass 1.0

The first stable release of the WAF++ Framework and WAFPass CLI.

Launching on the pre-eve of Cloud Native Conference DE12 May 2026 · 20:00 CEST