AWS is beginning to earn a reputation for being a better open-source player as the company looks to address its customers’ needs.

AWS is the leading cloud platform, with companies and government agencies around the world relying on its services. Since much of the internet runs on open-source software, it stands to reason that cloud platforms and open-source would go hand-in-hand. In that climate, AWS is quietly earning a reputation for itself as a solid open-source player, even if it’s not quite as active as other tech companies.

In a writeup for TechRepublic, Matt Asay makes the case that AWS has made some major improvements in its open-source approach, especially since the days when it had the reputation of trying to convince the industry it was contributing more than it was. As an example, Asay cites AWS engineer Divij Vaidya’s tweet about becoming one of the top 10 contributors to the Apache Kafka project just three months into his new role.

In response to Asay’s article, tech journalist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols tweeted his agreement.

While AWS is currently the market leader, Microsoft has been gaining ground. In addition to the advantage the Redmond company has as a result of its ecosystem of operating systems and desktop software, Microsoft is also one of the leading contributors to open source projects.

AWS clearly has a newfound appreciation for the benefits that come with contributing to open source projects, especially in the context of helping to tailor its services to its customers’ needs.