Google Summer of Code 2025 Contributor Applications Now Open!

Join Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and contribute to the world of open source! Applications for GSoC are open from March 24 to April 8, 2025.

Since 2005, GSoC has successfully brought over 21,000 new contributors from 123 countries into the open source community. This is an exciting opportunity for students and beginners to open source (18+) to gain real-world experience this summer. You will spend 12+ weeks coding, learning about open source development, and earn a competitive stipend under the guidance of experienced mentors.

Learn More and Apply

• Read the Contributor Guide and Advice for people applying for GSoC to learn more about application basics.

• Make your proposal stand out! Read the Writing a proposal doc written by former contributors.

• Watch our Intro to GSoC video, as well as the GSoC Org Highlight videos and Community Talks Series to get inspired about projects that contributors have worked on in the past.

• Read the Google Summer of Code Program Rules, FAQ, and join us in our Discord Channel to connect with the community.

• Explore the 185 mentoring organizations and use filters to sort by your interests including programming language and category.

• Reach out now to your preferred organizations via their contact methods listed on the GSoC site

Interested contributors may register and submit project proposals on the GSoC site from now until Tuesday, April 8th at 18:00 UTC.

Best of luck to all our applicants!

By Stephanie Taylor, Mary Radomile and Lucila Ortíz – GSoC Program Admins

Meet the Mentoring organizations of GSoC 2025!

We are thrilled to share that we have selected 185 open source projects for the 21st year of Google Summer of Code (GSoC)

Get to know more about each organization via their individual GSoC program page. There you will find the best way to engage with each community, view project ideas, and read their contributor guidance for applying to their organization.

Applications for the GSoC Contributors are open March 24 - April 8, 2025

The 2025 GSoC program is open to students and to beginners in open source software development. If you are eager to enhance your chances of becoming a GSoC contributor this year, we highly recommend following these steps:

• Get inspired by watching the 'Introduction to GSoC' video for a quick overview and the Community Talks to learn more about past projects that contributors completed.
• Review the Contributor Guide and Advice for Applying to GSoC.
• Review the list of accepted organizations.
• We recommend finding two to three Orgs that interest you and reading through their project ideas. Use the filters on the site to help you narrow down based on the programming languages you are familiar with or categories that interest you.
• Once you find an idea that excites you, reach out to the organization right away via their preferred communication methods. Communicating early and often will increase your chances of being accepted.
• Introduce yourself to the mentors and community and ask questions to determine if this project idea is a good fit for your skill set and interests.
• Use the information you received to write up your proposal.

Join us in our upcoming Info session!

• Contributor Talk #3 on Thursday, March 6, 16:00 UTC
Join the talk here: meet.google.com/gyq-mcuz-wey

Finally, you can find more information about the program on our website which includes the full 2025 timeline. You’ll also find the FAQ, Program Rules and some videos with more details about GSoC for both contributors and mentors.

Welcome aboard 2025 Mentoring Organizations! We are looking forward to an amazing year!

By Stephanie Taylor, Mary Radomile & Lucila Ortíz – GSoC Program Admins

Tag-Based Protection Made Easy

Scalable, Customizable, and Automated Backup Management

Managing backups across cloud environments can be challenging, particularly when dealing with large-scale infrastructure and constantly evolving workloads. With tag-based protection, organizations can automate backup assignments, ensure broad resource protection, and tailor policies to fit their needs – all through an open-source approach designed for flexibility and scalability leveraging Google Cloud Backup and DR.

Why Open Source? Flexibility and Customization

Traditional backup management often requires manual configurations, making it difficult to scale. By leveraging open-source automation, this solution allows users to:

• Customize backup policies using VM tags that align with business needs (e.g., application, environment, or criticality).
• Eliminate manual effort with automated backup assignments and removals.
• Ensure bulk resource protection, dynamically adjusting backup coverage as infrastructure scales.
• Integrate seamlessly with existing Google Cloud workflows, APIs, and automation tools.

With open-source flexibility, users can tailor backup strategies to fit their exact needs – automating, scaling, and adapting in real-time.

Scalable and Dynamic Backup Management

This approach provides:

• Bulk inclusion/exclusion of projects and folders, simplifying administration.
• Dynamic adjustments based on real-time tag updates.
• Cloud Run automation to execute backups at scheduled intervals (hourly, daily, weekly, etc.).
• Comprehensive protection reports, ensuring visibility into backup coverage.

Seamless Google Cloud Integration

To maximize efficiency, this open-source backup automation ensures:

• Role-based access through predefined Google Cloud permissions (Tag Viewer, Backup, and DR Backup User).
• Enhanced security by ensuring only authorized VMs are included in backup plans.

Get Started with the Open-Source Script

The backup automation script is available on GitHub, allowing users to customize and contribute to its development:

🔗 Explore the repository

By leveraging Google Cloud’s open-source backup automation, teams can effortlessly scale, automate, and customize their backup strategies – reducing operational overhead while ensuring critical resources remain protected.

By Ashika Ganesh – Product Manager, Google Cloud