Building the Rust Commercial Network: A Home for Rust in Production

The Rust Foundation is launching the Rust Commercial Network (RCN): a community where the companies and organizations running Rust in production work together, and with the Rust Project, to advance Rust adoption. Our first public meeting is June 22 at 4pm UTC, and you’re invited! Click here to view the upcoming events and add the first meeting to your calendar. 

More details below!

Rust has crossed a threshold. What began as a language prized by early adopters now runs in production at the heart of operating systems, cloud platforms, automotive systems, and public infrastructure. Rust’s shift from promising to load-bearing language means that one of our central questions is no longer just “How do we get people to try Rust?” It’s “How do the organizations relying on Rust turn their real-world experience into a constructive force for the language and its maintainers?”

We feel that the newly-formed Rust Commercial Network is the answer, and we’re excited to see the broader Rust ecosystem of users and maintainers get involved. 

If this effort sounds useful to your organization, read on to learn how to follow progress, join our first meeting, and become a founding member. 

What Is the RCN?

The Rust Commercial Network is a community of industry professionals, thought leaders, and Rust Project members sharing their experiences adopting Rust and running it in production. Members include Rust Foundation Members, Rust Advocates within their companies and industries, Rust Project Members, and individuals representing commercial companies, industries, academia, and organizations that are either using Rust or looking to adopt it.

Think of the RCN as an umbrella network. Beneath it sit topic-specific initiatives, consortiums and working groups, with the network’s work overseen by an RCN Steering Committee. Membership is free, and you don’t need to join a consortium or working group to take part. Many members will join the RCN simply to network with their peers.

Although it’s brand new, the RCN is already delivering value: a Network Services Working Group has kicked off with an initial meeting, with participation from AWS, Microsoft, JetBrains, F5, Databricks, and more. The group provides a platform for companies building commercial network services in Rust to share best practices, standardize common network architectures, and pool resources to address gaps.

Launching with Industry Backing

The inaugural RCN Steering Committee is in place, with representatives from across the Foundation’s membership tiers. Find their perspectives on the RCN in their own words:

Jess Izen, Amazon Web Services (AWS): Platinum Member:

“Rust has an opportunity to lead the industry in both supply chain security and ecosystem sustainability. To realize that opportunity, companies need to work alongside maintainers and the broader Rust community to identify shared dependencies and strengthen the long-term health of the ecosystem. What excites me most about the Rust Commercial Network is the amount of common ground that already exists. Many of these challenges are shared, which means we can make meaningful progress by tackling them together.”

Scott McNew, Canonical (Gold Member): 

“The Rust programming language is transforming secure, high-performance software development. It has rapidly become a core component of Linux and enterprise software. The Rust Commercial Network provides a way for enterprises to work together to solve common problems, establish standards, and share best practices in the ways that they adopt, develop, and deploy Rust software.”

Vitaly Bragilevsky, JetBrains (Silver Member):

“Rust is fully mature and ready for widespread adoption across many industries, yet its uptake among small and mid-sized companies remains below its potential. I believe that RCN and its initiatives can help change this by providing the information, success stories, and tooling needed to persuade and support organizations that are still on the fence. At the same time, these efforts can raise awareness and encourage companies that are not yet considering Rust to take a closer look.”

David Wood, Rust Project Compiler Team Co-Lead, Rust Foundation Project Director:

“Industry adoption is critical to the continued success of Rust, and the RCN is a great opportunity for the Rust Project to learn more about the challenges that industrial users run into when adopting the language and how we can better support these users. I’m very excited to represent the Rust Project on the RCN’s Steering Committee.”

Lori Lorusso, Rust Foundation (advisory seat)

“My role at the Rust Foundation is to bring companies adopting Rust closer to the people building the language, and the RCN goes a step further. In true open source fashion, multiple companies will now work together on shared problems with a direct line to the Rust Project. That connection is mutually beneficial: members of the RCN gain real insight into how the Project works, and the Project can surface its own needs. My biggest hope is that it brings corporate funding and development help to the table, sustaining the language and the people behind it, and driving more adoption.“ 

Coming Soon: Meet the RCN’s Founding Members

The founding group of RCN participants will include Rust Foundation member organizations plus external organizations from across industry, academia, and the Rust Project itself, which is exactly the breadth the RCN is built for. We look forward to announcing the full group following our next meeting. 

How the RCN Works

The RCN keeps the barrier to entry low and the ambitions high. Meetings happen regularly on Google Meet under the Chatham House Rule, so people can speak candidly with async discussion in the #rcn channel on the Rust Project Zulip. Members can propose initiatives, consortiums, and working groups around specific topics, and over time, you can expect outputs like adoption playbooks, reference architectures, and structured feedback for the Rust Project. The full charter, member definitions, and meeting policies live in the RCN GitHub repository.

Three Ways to Get Involved

1. Join the RCN Zulip channel, where the network discusses its work. It’s a great resource to see all of the topics our members are focused on!

2. Come to our first public meeting. June 22 at 4pm UTC. You’ll have the chance to meet others in the RCN, hear what’s planned, and help shape where the network goes next. No membership required to attend. Click HERE to view the schedule and copy events to your calendar. 

3. Become a Founding Member of the RCN. Fill out the membership application by June 22 to be listed as a Founding member. All members will be listed on the RCN GitHub repository. Participants are expected to follow the Rust Foundation Code of Conduct.

By creating the RCN with a founding group of organizations using Rust, we’re opening another pathway for the Rust Project and commercial entities to build together. Our hope is that this network brings more contributors and more funding to the Project, while giving the people who depend on Rust in production a clearer voice. Join us!