Merge pull request #2060 from jzelinskie/adoptors

README: rework sections: zanzibar, contrib, users

README.md

@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 <h1 align="center">
     <a href="https://authzed.com#gh-dark-mode-only" target="_blank">
-        <img width="300" src="https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/assets/343539/82234426-468b-4297-8b5c-f06a44fe2278" alt="spicedb logo">
+        <img width="300" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0ebf4718-283b-4c40-b567-1d577c0a2e03" alt="spicedb logo">
     </a>
     <a href="https://authzed.com#gh-light-mode-only" target="_blank">
-        <img width="300" src="https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/assets/343539/312ff046-7076-4c30-afd4-2e3d86c06f51" alt="spicedb Logo">
+        <img width="300" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/577a72f9-4fdd-49f8-b1d6-e53025d219b8" alt="spicedb Logo">
     </a>
 </h1>
 
@@ -34,12 +34,34 @@
 
 ## What is SpiceDB?
 
-SpiceDB is a graph database purpose-built for storing and evaluating access control data.
+<a href="https://authzed.com#gh-dark-mode-only" target="_blank"><img align="right" width="300" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e0e70549-91dc-4a07-9309-2e18942a7902" alt="spicedb diagram" /></a>
+<a href="https://authzed.com#gh-light-mode-only" target="_blank"><img align="right" width="300" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/97342fce-d94b-42b6-b02f-fe3958d13981" alt="spicedb diagram" /></a>
 
-As of 2021, [broken access control became the #1 threat to the web][owasp]. With SpiceDB, developers finally have the solution to stopping this threat the same way as the hyperscalers.
+SpiceDB is the most mature open source project inspired by Google's internal authorization system: [Zanzibar].
+
+As of 2021, [broken access control became the #1 threat to web security according to OWASP][owasp].
+With SpiceDB, platform teams are armed with the same techniques for stopping this threat that the hyperscale tech companies have been doing for years behind closed doors.
+
+Similar to a relational database, developers define a schema, write data to the database, and query that data in various ways.
+However, unlike relational databases that use general-purpose SQL, SpiceDB exposes a gRPC API specifcally optimized for authorizing actions in your systems.
+
+Because SpiceDB self-contains data and logic for used for authorization, it is often ran as a centralized service shared across product suites and microservice architectures.
+
+SpiceDB is focused purely on *authorization* and is designed to be fully agnostic to *authentication* solutions/identity providers.
 
 [owasp]: https://owasp.org/Top10/A01_2021-Broken_Access_Control/
 
+### What is Google Zanzibar?
+
+In 2019, Google released the paper "[Zanzibar: Google's Consistent, Global Authorization System][zanzibar]" providing the original inspiration for SpiceDB.
+The paper presents the design, implementation, and deployment of, Zanzibar, Google's internal system for storing and evaluating access control lists.
+Originally designed for [Google+ Circles][circles], Zanzibar now sits at the core Google's entire product suite (Calendar, Drive, Maps, Photos, YouTube) and powers the Google Cloud IAM service.
+
+While SpiceDB has gone on to innovate well beyond the functionality outlined in the paper, development of SpiceDB aims to always remain faithful to the paper's values and goals.
+
+[zanzibar]: https://authzed.com/zanzibar
+[circles]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google+#Circles
+
 ### Why SpiceDB?
 
 - [**World-class engineering**][about]: painstakingly built by experts that pioneered the cloud-native ecosystem
@@ -51,55 +73,68 @@ As of 2021, [broken access control became the #1 threat to the web][owasp]. With
 - [**Reverse Indexes**][reverse-indexes]: queries for "What can `subject` do?", "Who can access `resource`?"
 
 [about]: https://authzed.com/why-authzed
-[zanzibar]: https://authzed.com/zanzibar
 [1M]: https://authzed.com/blog/google-scale-authorization
 [caveats]: https://netflixtechblog.com/abac-on-spicedb-enabling-netflixs-complex-identity-types-c118f374fa89
 [tooling]: https://authzed.com/docs/spicedb/modeling/validation-testing-debugging
 [reverse-indexes]: https://authzed.com/docs/spicedb/getting-started/faq#what-is-a-reverse-index
 [consistency]: https://authzed.com/docs/spicedb/concepts/consistency
 
-## Joining the Community
+### Who uses SpiceDB?
 
-SpiceDB is a community project where everyone is invited to participate and [feel welcomed].
-While the project has a technical goal, participation is not restricted to those with code contributions.
+SpiceDB is a powerful tool in a variety of domains and in organizations of all sizes; we've chosen to highlight a few interesting community members:
 
-[feel welcomed]: CODE-OF-CONDUCT.md
+- [IBM's AI Data & Model Factory Platform](https://youtu.be/4K2a9HcRhXA)
+- [Red Hat's Insights Platform](https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/management/insights)
+- [GitPod](https://github.com/gitpod-io/gitpod/issues/15632)
+- [TubiTV China (中文)](https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/685603356)
+- [DMM Online Salon (日本語)](https://inside.dmm.com/articles/salon-datebase-migration-challenges/)
 
-### Learn
+Beyond the community, you can also read [customer stories][stories] for commercial usage of SpiceDB.
 
-- Ask questions via [GitHub Discussions] or our [Community Discord]
-- Read [blog posts] from the Authzed team describing the project and major announcements
-- Watch our [YouTube videos] about SpiceDB, modeling schemas, leveraging CNCF projects, and more
-- Explore the [SpiceDB Awesome List] that enumerates official and third-party projects built by the community
-- Reference [community examples] for demo environments, integration testing, CI pipelines, and writing schemas
+[stories]: https://authzed.com/customers
 
-[GitHub Discussions]: https://github.com/orgs/authzed/discussions/new?category=q-a
-[Community Discord]: https://authzed.com/discord
-[blog posts]: https://authzed.com/blog
-[SpiceDB Awesome List]: https://github.com/authzed/awesome-spicedb
-[YouTube videos]: https://www.youtube.com/@authzed
-[community examples]: https://github.com/authzed/examples
+## Joining the Community
 
-### Contribute
+Join our fellow contributors from companies such as <img alt="github logo" height="15px" src="https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/assets/343539/c05b8aef-c862-4499-bebf-0a43f3b423c4"> GitHub, <img alt="adobe logo" height="15px" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/64007fa0-f342-4eba-bc81-0e078677e918"> Adobe, <img alt="google logo" height="15px" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/15a144f4-4244-40af-be58-53ea3be46bc4"> Google, <img alt="fastly logo" height="15px" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/57f042c3-e106-4524-95b8-167acc6be16e"> Fastly, <img alt="plaid logo" height="15px" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0678972d-b8ff-41e6-a507-7289a1ee1e94"> Plaid, <img alt="red hat logo" height="15px" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/955a6c28-3a5c-4679-8e12-b50734024be2"> Red Hat, and <img alt="reddit logo" height="15px" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/78d542f9-37f7-4d78-bf34-8aa0b0ddd12d"> Reddit.
+
+SpiceDB is a community project where everyone is invited to participate and [feel welcomed].
+While the project has a technical goal, participation is not restricted to those with code contributions.
 
 [CONTRIBUTING.md] documents communication, contribution flow, legal requirements, and common tasks when contributing to the project.
 
 You can find issues by priority: [Urgent], [High], [Medium], [Low], [Maybe].
 There are also [good first issues].
 
-Our [documentation website] is also open source if you'd like to clarify anything you find confusing.
+Our [documentation] is also [open source][oss-docs] if you'd like to clarify anything you find confusing.
 
+[feel welcomed]: CODE-OF-CONDUCT.md
 [CONTRIBUTING.md]: CONTRIBUTING.md
 [Urgent]: https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/labels/priority%2F0%20urgent
 [High]: https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/labels/priority%2F1%20high
 [Medium]: https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/labels/priority%2F2%20medium
 [Low]: https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/labels/priority%2F3%20low
 [Maybe]: https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/labels/priority%2F4%20maybe
 [good first issues]: https://github.com/authzed/spicedb/labels/hint%2Fgood%20first%20issue
-[documentation website]: https://github.com/authzed/docs
+[documentation]: https://authzed.com/docs
+[oss-docs]: https://github.com/authzed/docs
 
 ## Getting Started
 
+### Familiarizing yourself with our learning materials
+
+- Ask questions via [GitHub Discussions] or our [Community Discord]
+- Read [blog posts] from the Authzed team describing the project and major announcements
+- Watch our [YouTube videos] about SpiceDB, modeling schemas, leveraging CNCF projects, and more
+- Explore the [SpiceDB Awesome List] that enumerates official and third-party projects built by the community
+- Reference [community examples] for demo environments, integration testing, CI pipelines, and writing schemas
+
+[GitHub Discussions]: https://github.com/orgs/authzed/discussions/new?category=q-a
+[Community Discord]: https://authzed.com/discord
+[blog posts]: https://authzed.com/blog
+[SpiceDB Awesome List]: https://github.com/authzed/awesome-spicedb
+[YouTube videos]: https://www.youtube.com/@authzed
+[community examples]: https://github.com/authzed/examples
+
 ### Installing the binary
 
 Binary releases are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows on AMD64 and ARM64 architectures.