F37 proposal: Return Cloud Base to Edition Status (System-Wide Change proposal)

[Ben Cotton]

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/RestoreCloudEdition

This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes
process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive
community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved
by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

== Summary ==
Cloud '''should''' be listed on getfedora.org with Workstation,
Server
and IoT. The petition to reinstate the Cloud Base as an official
Edition is based on the clear identification of unique environmental
support requirements for private hyperscaler and public cloud
environments not specifically addressed by other Editions.

== Owner ==
* Name: [https://pagure.io/cloud-sig Fedora Cloud SIG]
* Name: [[User:davdunc| David Duncan]]
* Email: davdunc(a)amazon.com


== Detailed Description ==
The cloud base as an edition is plastic in a way that is appropriate
to match the various virtual environments on which it is capable of
running. There has been a lot of work explored here and a lot of
writing done to find that next level. In previous years, we had lots
of multi-cloud aspirations that couldn’t be fulfilled, but they can be
now and we want to ensure availability and ease of use.The Fedora
Cloud Base image is uniquely focused on supporting cloud and other
fail-only environments.

== Feedback ==
See the discussion here:
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/fedora-cloud-edition-not-an-editio...

Some specific feedback received was that we could potentially deploy
images of Fedora Workstation or Fedora Server to accomplish the same
tasks that are accomplished with Fedora Cloud Base, but that is
generally incorrect. Cloud specific workloads are not meant to be used
in the same way as these other editions except under specific
circumstances. Cloud specific configurations favor automated
deployments with monitoring and logging handled to some degree through
remote services. They are meant to be deployed sparingly and then to
increase in numbers for scalability.

These images should be able to handle virtualization for many
different workloads. The use of graphical environments or Server roles
satisfy only highly specialized cloud experiences.

== Benefit to Fedora ==
Cloud is a base, it has variations that work in different
environments, but it supports work that is not related to the “Just
enough” position of FCOS and extends the surface for experimental
workloads at the base operating system layers. The Cloud working group
has a very dedicated group of supporters who find value beyond the
requirements of the other editions. With the adoption of btrfs in this
most recent release there was much stir over how it could fit so well
and yet diverge so much from ''Container'' exclusive like those of
FCOS or ''Server'' goals, further accenting this dividing line.

That introduces the highlights for the reasons Fedora Cloud Base fits as an
[https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/council/policy/edition-promotion-pol...
Edition]. The cloud base as an edition is plastic in a way that is
appropriate to match the various virtual environments on which it is
capable of running. There has been a lot of work explored here and a
lot of writing done to find that next level. In previous years, we had
lots of multi-cloud aspirations that couldn’t be fulfilled, but they
can be now and we want to ensure availability and ease of use.

== Scope ==
* Proposal owners: [[Cloud/Cloud_PRD|Cloud PRD]] and
[[CloudBase/Technical_Specification|Technical Specification]] updates
are in process to ensure that we provide sufficient roadmap and
technical specification to confirm alignment with the Fedora Project
overall and especially that we are aligned with the Cloud Base users
and established infrastructure providers.

* Other developers: Web changes will need to be made to accomodate the
publication of links and some artwork will need to be created to align
with current Project design.

* Release engineering: [https://pagure.io/releng/issues #Releng issue
number] `TBD`
* Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
* Trademark approval: https://pagure.io/Fedora-Council/tickets/issue/397
* Alignment with Objectives:


== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
In restoring the Cloud edition to the official Edition status, we
eliminate any issues. It is with the downgrade to edition status where
there will be an impact. The release information will have to be
modified to remove the edition identifiers and this may cause an
impact to current users.

== How To Test ==
Standard QA testing and evaluation methods apply for QA Compose.


== User Experience ==
This may change where Fedora Cloud Base Images are located in the web
portal, but it will most likely be simpler to discover the images
themselves.

== Dependencies ==
There are no currently known dependencies for this.

== Contingency Plan ==
* Contingency mechanism: Remove the
* Contingency deadline: 2022-10-18
* Blocks release? This is not a release blocker

If this is not approved for F37, we will roll forward to F38 and
prepare as required. There is no technical change in the image build
requirements.

== Documentation ==

Documentation is currently in the wiki for the [[Cloud|working group]]
and the [[Cloud SIG]] and is in the   process of a series of updates
to be moved to the [[DocsProject|Fedora Docs]] format

== Release Notes ==
''Fedora Cloud Base Edition''
  Announcing the promotion of the Fedora Cloud Base to official status
as a Fedora Edition. Fedora Cloud Base Images can now be found from
https://getfedora.org


-- 
Ben Cotton
He / Him / His
Fedora Program Manager
Red Hat
TZ=America/Indiana/Indianapolis