IBM continues as a Platinum Sponsor of MariaDB Foundation

We are delighted to announce that IBM is continuing its support of MariaDB Foundation as a Platinum Sponsor.

IBM’s sponsorship brings together two major enterprise computing platforms, IBM® Power® and IBM Z®, reflecting a shared interest in ensuring that MariaDB Server remains available, well tested and relevant across a broad range of architectures and demanding production environments.

Open source across enterprise platforms

MariaDB Server is used in environments ranging from individual developer machines and cloud infrastructure to business-critical enterprise systems.

Deploying the MariaDB Privacy-First Stack Anywhere with Terraform

In my previous post, I introduced the MariaDB Privacy-First Stack.

Nextcloud for collaboration, Passbolt for passwords and secrets, and MariaDB Server for the data.

Simple enough.

But after explaining what the stack is, the next question is usually very practical:

Where can I deploy it?

And the answer should not be:

On the cloud provider the template was written for.

That would be a strange way to talk about digital sovereignty.

If the architecture is really meant to give you more control, you should also have some freedom regarding where it runs.

Continuent joins MariaDB Foundation as a Silver Sponsor

MariaDB Foundation is pleased to welcome Continuent as a new Silver Sponsor.

Continuent develops solutions for organizations running business-critical applications on MariaDB and other MySQL-compatible databases. Its flagship product, Tungsten Cluster, helps organizations manage database availability, disaster recovery and distributed deployments across on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments.

The company has worked with open-source database technologies for more than two decades and brings extensive experience from demanding production environments across SaaS, financial services, telecommunications, e-commerce and other industries.

“Continuent has a long history in the MariaDB and wider open-source database ecosystem.

MariaDB Foundation Sea Lion Champions Nominees: Sumit Srivastava

Interview with Sumit Srivastava, nominated in the Adoption & Industry Impact category.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Sumit Srivastava, SVP Business Development & Products at Tayana, a Bangalore-based telecom software company. Sumit was nominated for championing MariaDB adoption in the telecommunications industry and its demonstration of open-source database delivering performance, scalability, and business impact in mission-critical systems. Like me, Sumit sits between technical and business — “the business people think I’m technical, and the technical people think I’m business,” as he put it. It made a lively conversation.

The Interview

Kaj: Sumit, Congratulations on your nomination.

MariaDB Foundation at Oracle’s MySQL Contributor Summit: Ecosystems, Forks and Constructive Coexistence

Last week, Oracle invited MariaDB Foundation to give a presentation at Oracle’s MySQL Contributor Summit 2026. I had the opportunity to participate remotely and speak about MariaDB’s role within the broader MySQL ecosystem.

First of all, I would like to thank Heather VanCura, VP Community Engagement at Oracle, and Jason Wilcox, SVP Data Services at Oracle, for the invitation and for creating a space where these discussions could happen openly and constructively.

The presentation itself is available here on YouTube. At just over 17 minutes, it is reasonably compact viewing for anyone interested in the current state — and possible future direction — of the MySQL ecosystem.

Unleashing Innovation Through Plugins

One of the corner stones in MariaDB Foundation’s mission is:

We strive to increase adoption by users and across use cases, platforms and means of deployment.

https://mariadb.org/about/

MariaDB Server plugins are definitely a prime “means of deployment” for server features. But a relatively neglected one so far. They have been around for many years. But, somehow, they have escaped the user’s focus. Why that happened is a very interesting topic. And one that I’d definitely like to hear your opinion on!

Which brings me to my main topic: How do we all change that?

Database Trends: What is changing in the database world (besides AI)

Earlier this month, I had a half-hour chat with Kellyn Gorman, a Database and AI Advocate and Engineer at Redgate. The UK software company is known for database DevOps and database management tools most databases – and since 2024 as the owner of DB-Engines popularity Ranking of database management systems.

The chat was an intellectual pleasure, to say the least. Kellyn is outstandingly well informed on databases, with a background starting in Oracle, spanning most databases as a DBA and industry analyst, and by now using MariaDB for about fifteen years, almost since its inception.

Contributions As a Cost-saver

I came across an excellent paper by the Linux Foundation. In it I find solid economical evidence for a very fundamental idea: contributions are the life-blood of an open source project.

Contributions in the broader sense (code, documentation, quality assurance, marketing, education, financial support) are central to every project. Open source or not. Giving users what they need and want is what makes any project appealing. It’s just that with open source, the cost to procuring these is not that directly attached to the actual use. So, there is a gap to cross between passive use and active participation.