FTL: A new operating system for clouds

FTL is a new cloud operating system design that runs as a userspace library within containers, allowing developers to build and modify OS features like they would applications rather than kernel code. It combines the security and flexibility of microkernels with the performance of monolithic kernels, using a minimal FTL kernel to provide hardware-level isolation while supporting Linux binaries and enabling both traditional POSIX applications and specialized unikernels. The approach aims to make lightweight containers as secure as virtual machines while unlocking new OS-level capabilities without sacrificing performance.