From punch cards to containerization, database technologies have changed tremendously over the years. And there has been no shortage of watershed moments along the way. However, we believe the emergence of advanced AI may very well be the most significant one yet. Percona certainly isn’t alone in that belief. But, when it comes to the […]
18
2025
The Percona Perspective: A Vision for the Future of Open Source Databases in the Age of AI
03
2025
Why Companies Are Saying No to Proprietary Software, Including MongoDB
Is your organization’s innovation being constrained by proprietary software restrictions? You’re not alone—these limitations are increasingly at odds with enterprise growth objectives, affecting both bottom lines and competitive agility. For years, proprietary software has dominated the enterprise database space, with MongoDB emerging as one of the most well-known players. Its powerful combination of scalability, flexibility, […]
13
2024
Software Licensing and Open Source: Why Definitions Matter
Over the last few years, there have been many calls to evolve the Open Source Definition (OSD) to fit the modern world. Some would like to see noncompetitive licenses such as the Server Side Public License (SSPL) or Elastic License considered open source. Others approach this by thinking about ethics and “using software for good and […]
12
2024
Alternatives to Cloud DBaaS: What to Look For
Originally published on The New Stack. Building a flexible cloud strategy means making decisions that align with operational efficiency, cost management, and scalability. Public cloud platforms offer immense convenience but come with certain downsides. High long-term costs, vendor lock-in, and lack of flexibility are concerns for many organizations. As businesses grow, the allure of quick-starting […]
06
2024
An Elephant in the Cluster: Making PostgreSQL Feel at Home on Kubernetes
TL;DR Kubernetes was built for stateless apps, but as more stateful applications (like databases) run on it, operators include quite heavy implementations to Kubernetes workload management API (such as StatefulSets) deficits. While creating custom methods allows flexibility and faster time to market, it also leads to inconsistency and complexity. In this blog, I want to […]
28
2024
Abandonware in Popular Open Source Databases
Inspired by this comment in the Hacker News discussion, I posted polls on my LinkedIn network about the tendency (or perception of tendency) to abandon features without deprecating them in some of the most popular open source databases – MySQL, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL. First, let’s look at why “Abandoning” features rather than formally depreciating them […]
24
2024
Redis Users Want a Change
Originally published on The New Stack. Open source Valkey is emerging as a top contender for the 75% of companies concerned about Redis’ licensing change, finds Percona research. The key-value store landscape is experiencing a shake-up, as Redis’ recent licensing changes have driven users to search for alternatives. Our latest Percona survey looks deeper into […]
23
2024
Open Source and Flawed Foundations
I have always been a big advocate of “Foundation”-run open source projects as being better compared to single-vendor projects, where there is a risk of a vendor unilaterally changing licenses or taking other “hostile” steps towards project users and the community and their reliance on the project’s open source nature. It turns out things are […]
17
2024
MySQL 8.0 vs. 5.7: Are the Newer Versions More Problematic?
There has been much discussion recently about the stability and performance of the latest MySQL releases. Many database professionals are voicing concerns, especially after encountering several issues in the newer versions. Issues with MySQL 8.0.38 Let’s start with some important news from Marco Tusa. In one of his blog posts, Marco strongly advised against upgrading […]
09
2024
MongoDB Performance Regression Benchmarking and the Truth Behind Journaling
I have always been wondering about performance regression when upgrading in MongoDB. From MongoDB v3.6, despite continuous improvement in the MongoDB feature development, the growing feature set has not included much, if anything in the way of performance improvements. At Percona, we always strive to boost the overall performance by looking into the customers’ environment […]