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CISO FAQ

Do we need to make our application source code public when using Welkin?

TL;DR

Definitely NOT, you own your application source code and you decide what to do with it.

Elastisys hereby confirms that Welkin and its Additional Managed Services (AMS) are NOT putting Application Developers (users) in a situation which obliges them to make their software or source code running on Welkin available to the public.

Should we at Elastisys become aware of such an issue existing, we will immediately rectify the situation by replacing problematic components. You can read more about how we take architectural decisions here.

As evidence, that the architectural decision process works – in particular when it comes to licensing issues – here are some decisions we took:

  • We decided only to offer TimescaleDB Apache 2 Edition (licensed under Apache 2.0) and NOT TimescaleDB “Community Edition” (licensed under the Timescale license). The Timescale license contains some problematic clauses and is, to our knowledge, not tested in court. You can read more about the subtle differences between the TimescaleDB versions by opening this link.
  • We replaced Elasticsearch with OpenSearch (licensed under Apache 2.0), when Elasticsearch changed to the Elastic license. You can read more about the context by opening this link.
  • We replaced InfluxDB with Thanos. This was due to the fact that the open-source version was too limiting. You can read more about this decision by opening this link.
  • We made a risk assessment regarding Grafana, and determined that its AGPL license does not pose a problem. You can read more about our assessment below.

You can read more about our commitment to community-driven open-source by opening this link.

Will GrafanaLabs change to AGPL licenses affect Welkin?

TL;DR

Users and administrators of Welkin are unaffected.

Part of Welkin -- specifically the CISO dashboards -- are built on top of Grafana, which recently changed its license to AGPLv3. In brief, if Grafana is exposed via a network connection -- as is the case with Welkin -- then AGPLv3 requires all source code including modifications to be made available.

The exact difference between "aggregate" and "modified version" is somewhat unclear. Welkin only configures Grafana and does not change its source code. Hence, we determined that Welkin is an "aggregate" work and is unaffected by the "viral" clauses of AGPLv3.

As a result, Welkin continues to be distributed under Apache 2.0 as before.

Will Min.io change to AGPL licenses affect Welkin?

TL;DR

Users and administrators of Welkin are unaffected.

Min.io recently changed its license to AGPLv3.

Certain installations of Welkin may use Min.io for accessing object storage on Azure or GCP. However, Welkin does not currently include Min.io. In brief, if Min.io is exposed via a network connection, then AGPLv3 requires all source code including modifications to be made available.

The exact difference between "aggregate" and "modified version" is somewhat unclear. When using Min.io with Welkin, we only use Min.io via its S3-compatible API. Hence, we determined that Welkin is an "aggregate" work and is unaffected by the "viral" clauses of AGPLv3.

As a result, Welkin continues to be distributed under Apache 2.0 as before.

Can I use Datadog/Logz.io/Elastic Cloud with Welkin?

TL;DR

Technically, yes, but legally speaking and from a GDPR perspective, NO. Why is that?

  • Logs contain personal data.
  • Personal data should NOT be shipped to US cloud providers.

Use Welkin's built-in OpenSearch instead.

Application and platform logs are highly likely to contain personal data. Note that, according to GDPR Art. 4 any information that can be directly or indirectly related to an individual is personal data. There are court rulings clarifying that:

According to the so-called "Schrems II" ruling, US law -- in particular US CLOUD Act and US FISA are incompatible -- with EU GDPR and personal data processing.

Furthermore, according to a French court ruling it doesn't matter if the data-center is located in the EU/EEA. A US company is still under US jurisdiction and considered at risk of US CLOUD Act and US FISA.

Most Software-as-a-Service log management platforms -- like Datadog, Logz.io and Elastic Cloud -- are operated by US entities and run on US clouds. Hence, using them to process logs poses a high risk that personal data ends up being processed on a US cloud. Therefore, personal data is at risk of US CLOUD Act and US FISA, which is incompatible with GDPR.

Fortunately, Welkin comes with OpenSearch built-in, so you can benefit from full-text search over your application logs while complying with GDPR.