CNCF collaborated with the Wasm community to release the first version of the Wasm landscape, designed to help better understand the scope of the Wasm ecosystem. "The original Cloud Native Landscape helped us map out the vast ecosystem surrounding cloud native technology, and we believe that as the ecosystem evolves and grows, Wasm will need the same."
The initial Wasm landscape includes 11 categories and 120 projects or products, with a total economic value of US$59.4 billion; 11 categories are divided into two major areas: Dev (application development) and Ops (application deployment).
Wasm application development requires its own ecosystem of programming languages and related tools, such as compilers, frameworks, libraries, tools, and runtimes. The Dev category includes programming languages, runtimes, application frameworks edge/bare metal, AI inference, embedded functions and tools.
There are 4 categories of programming languages in the Wasm field:
- Compiled language. First-class citizens are languages that can be compiled directly into Wasm bytecode and run in the Wasm runtime without any dependencies. C, C++, Zig, and Rust all fall into this category. They produce the fastest and smallest Wasm applications.
- Managed language. Managed languages are still compiled languages, but the compiler output requires a "managed runtime" to function properly. Including Kotlin, Dart, Go, Java and .Net, etc.
- Scripting language. Scripting languages such as JavaScript, Ruby, PHP and Python can run in Wasm. By compiling a scripting language interpreter (usually written in C) into Wasm, the Wasm-based interpreter program can then execute the script.
- " Compile to Wasm " language. A new generation of compiled languages optimized for Wasm targets is still in its very early stages. But if done right, these languages have the potential to become true first-class citizens in the Wasm space. The two leaders in this category are Moonbit and Grain, which are designed using modern language features from Go and Rust and optimized for efficient Wasm compilation and execution. Although still in its early stages, Moonbit already comes with a full suite of tools, from dynamic code autocompletion to an online IDE.
The next step after creating a Wasm application is to deploy and scale it in production. There are a large number of tools, frameworks and services to manage application deployment in cloud native environments. Many of them have integrated Wasm support. The Ops categories include orchestration and management, managed platforms, decentralized platforms, debugging and observability, and artifacts.
More details can be found in the official announcement .