Making MariaDB the Natural Successor to MySQL

At the MariaDB Foundation, clarity of purpose matters. In an ecosystem as foundational as open-source databases, confidence is built not through slogans, but through predictability, restraint, and long-term commitment.

As I reflect upon what we learned in 2025 and how we can serve the database community in 2026, one thought stands out: MariaDB is the natural successor to MySQL, as Oracle loses its interest in the development of what has been the default Open Source Relational DBMS.

The MariaDB Foundation recognises its responsibility. As uncertainty around MySQL’s long-term direction continues to grow, the global community of users, operators, and vendors quite reasonably seeks continuity.

Multimodal-Metadata-Hub for MariaDB Vector – Innovation 2nd place at MariaDB BangPypers Hackathon 2025

We recently announced the winners of the MariaDB Python Hackathon. We sat down with the Innovation track second place winners to learn more about the team and their submission.

Sunny Kumar, Abhijeet Dhanotiya, Anuj Gupta, Tushan Kumar Sinha, and Anand Vyas developed Metadata-Hub, a multimodal semantic search application using MariaDB Vector and OpenAI’s CLIP model. They were interviewed by Robert Silén, Community Advocate and Kaj Arnö, Executive Chairman of MariaDB Foundation. For the recorded interview, watch it on Youtube, or read the interview below.

Before we start, a short explanation: 

BangPypers x MariaDB Python Hackathon – Winners Announced!

Last Saturday marked an exciting milestone: the announcement of the winners in our first large-scale MariaDB Python Hackathon, organised in collaboration with BangPypers, HackerEarth, and MariaDB plc. Over the past months, developers from across India have explored new ways to make MariaDB easier to use, more connected, and better integrated into today’s most important open-source ecosystems.

This post celebrates the outstanding contributions in both the Integration Track — projects that help MariaDB work seamlessly with other tools and frameworks – and the Innovation Track – projects that showcase existing MariaDB features and make it easy to learn, copy, and adapt.

How deep can a bug be?

Last year I filed a bug report MDEV-33603 on what a looked like a benign problem with an optimizer taking a different code path in a particular trivial looking test. Its benign looking nature lead to me not looking at it until last week. The “benign” bug as it turned out is a bug in an OpenSSL optimization on IBM POWER, which maybe not the lowest level of “How deep”, but its certainly a long way from the high level (above storage engines) optimizer decisions in MariaDB.

Image by: Valerie Hinojosa on WikiMedia Commons

I feel I need to start this story justifying why it was left so long.

MariaDB Cloud: A Semi-Technical Introduction

When co-founding MariaDB plc under the name SkySQL Corporation fifteen years ago (before MariaDB Foundation existed), we picked the name SkySQL with a bit of a reference to the cloud. Obviously, we didn’t then have a clear understanding of what type of a cloud offering MariaDB should have. I am glad to note that those days are finally and completely over, with MariaDB Cloud. I wish it hadn’t taken fifteen years!

So now, I sat down for a proper chat with Jags Ramnarayan, the technical father of SkySQL / MariaDB Cloud.

How to Succeed in the MariaDB Python Hackathon, Bangalore

Last Friday, we hosted an Ask Me Anything session with HackerEarth – and we promised to share the same insights here in written form. So here it is: your guide to success in the MariaDB Python Hackathon!

A Great Idea Is Only the Beginning

A brilliant idea submission is just the start. The real work lies in the development — and that’s exactly what’s happening this month.

We want you to succeed. Success can mean that your hackathon contribution is widely used, that it puts you in the spotlight, and that it builds your reputation as a developer who makes a real impact.

MariaDB and AI: Building the Bridge That Really Matters

Not what AI can do for MariaDB – but what MariaDB can do for AI

I have hinted at this before (This Month in MariaDB – August 2025), but it deserves to be said again: our vision for MariaDB’s role in AI is both clear and ambitious. We do not simply want to participate in the AI space – we aim to be the bridge between real-world data and modern AI systems.

Large Language Models are, at their core, vast read-only neural networks. The data that organisations truly depend upon does not reside inside these models;

MariaDB Bangalore Hackathon: Ideation Phase Closing

The final days are here for the Foundation’s first large-scale hackathon, the MariaDB Python Hackathon we’re organising in partnership with BangPypers (the Bangalore Python Meetup, a group with about 14,000 members) and HackerEarth (a Hackathon organiser). Do come with your final submissions of ideas at mariadb-python.hackerearth.com within the next two days – in October, it’s development time!

The magnitude is new for MariaDB Foundation

Already, we’re quite proud of the results. Last Wednesday, I reported to the MariaDB Foundation Board meeting that we have over 3,000 registered individuals and 250 team idea submissions.