FOSDEM 2027: Bringing the M-Ecosystem Together
One ecosystem, many projects, shared challenges. Join us in Brussels on Sunday, January 31, 2027, for the M-Ecosystem Devroom at FOSDEM!
Building on the tradition of the MariaDB, MySQL & Friends Devroom, this new chapter expands its scope and ambition, bringing together developers and contributors from across the open-source database ecosystem to share knowledge, tackle common challenges, and foster collaboration across projects.
The “M” is bigger than ever
Today, the M-ecosystem includes MariaDB, MySQL, Percona Server for MySQL, Percona Server for MariaDB, VillageSQL, AliSQL, and many other projects. It also extends well beyond database servers, encompassing storage engines, connectors, proxies, development tools, and infrastructure.
These projects share common roots, protocols, tooling, and, importantly, many of the same users.
At the same time, they have taken different technical paths, introduced their own innovations, and developed different approaches to solving similar problems.
And that’s precisely what makes this ecosystem interesting.
Different projects, common challenges
Whether we’re discussing query optimization, replication, storage engines, compatibility, security, observability, or new workloads, many of the challenges we face transcend individual database implementations.
Sometimes, different projects arrive at similar solutions. Sometimes, they take radically different approaches. And sometimes, an idea developed in one project could benefit several others.
We believe there’s real value in sharing those experiences, understanding those decisions, and learning from one another.
Open source is not just about sharing code. It’s also about exchanging knowledge, challenging assumptions, and building connections between communities.
That’s the spirit behind the M-Ecosystem Devroom.
A devroom for the entire ecosystem
The M-Ecosystem Devroom is a neutral space where developers, contributors, maintainers, researchers, DBAs, and users from different projects can meet, present their work, and engage in technical discussions.
We particularly want to encourage conversations that cross project boundaries.
Why did one project choose a particular architecture? How do different implementations approach the same technical problem? What lessons can we learn from each other’s successes and failures?
These are exactly the kinds of discussions we hope to see in Brussels.
Share your work with the community
We’re inviting technical presentations about the development and evolution of the M-Ecosystem.
Topics of interest include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Database internals, query optimization, and performance
- Storage engines and architectural innovations
- Replication, clustering, and high availability
- Compatibility, protocols, and interoperability
- Extensibility, plugins and components
- Security, testing, and observability
- Connectors, proxies, and database tooling
- Cloud-native deployments and automation
- New workloads, including analytics, vector search, and AI
- Cross-project comparisons, collaboration, and lessons learned
We’re especially interested in presentations that explore architectural decisions, compare implementations, or share work that could benefit multiple projects.
We expect technical talks to last approximately 20 minutes, and all presentations should be in English.
As always at FOSDEM, the focus is on free and open-source software, openly available technical work, and knowledge that benefits the broader community.
You can already submit your proposal at https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2027/cfp, but more details are coming.
CFP: https://mariadb.org/fosdem-2027-bringing-the-m-ecosystem-together/
Submissions: https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2027/cfp
One ecosystem, many projects, shared challenges. Join us in Brussels on Sunday, January 31, 2027, for the M-Ecosystem Devroom at FOSDEM!
Building on the tradition of the MariaDB, MySQL & Friends Devroom, this new chapter expands its scope and ambition, bringing together developers and contributors from across the open-source database ecosystem to share knowledge, tackle common challenges, and foster collaboration across projects.
The “M” is bigger than ever
Today, the M-ecosystem includes MariaDB, MySQL, Percona Server for MySQL, Percona Server for MariaDB, VillageSQL, AliSQL, and many other projects. It also extends well beyond database servers, encompassing storage engines, connectors, proxies, development tools, and infrastructure.
These projects share common roots, protocols, tooling, and, importantly, many of the same users.
At the same time, they have taken different technical paths, introduced their own innovations, and developed different approaches to solving similar problems.
And that’s precisely what makes this ecosystem interesting.
Different projects, common challenges
Whether we’re discussing query optimization, replication, storage engines, compatibility, security, observability, or new workloads, many of the challenges we face transcend individual database implementations.
Sometimes, different projects arrive at similar solutions. Sometimes, they take radically different approaches. And sometimes, an idea developed in one project could benefit several others.
We believe there’s real value in sharing those experiences, understanding those decisions, and learning from one another.
Open source is not just about sharing code. It’s also about exchanging knowledge, challenging assumptions, and building connections between communities.
That’s the spirit behind the M-Ecosystem Devroom.
A devroom for the entire ecosystem
The M-Ecosystem Devroom is a neutral space where developers, contributors, maintainers, researchers, DBAs, and users from different projects can meet, present their work, and engage in technical discussions.
We particularly want to encourage conversations that cross project boundaries.
Why did one project choose a particular architecture? How do different implementations approach the same technical problem? What lessons can we learn from each other’s successes and failures?
These are exactly the kinds of discussions we hope to see in Brussels.
Share your work with the community
We’re inviting technical presentations about the development and evolution of the M-Ecosystem.
Topics of interest include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Database internals, query optimization, and performance
- Storage engines and architectural innovations
- Replication, clustering, and high availability
- Compatibility, protocols, and interoperability
- Extensibility, plugins and components
- Security, testing, and observability
- Connectors, proxies, and database tooling
- Cloud-native deployments and automation
- New workloads, including analytics, vector search, and AI
- Cross-project comparisons, collaboration, and lessons learned
We’re especially interested in presentations that explore architectural decisions, compare implementations, or share work that could benefit multiple projects.
We expect technical talks to last approximately 20 minutes, and all presentations should be in English.
As always at FOSDEM, the focus is on free and open-source software, openly available technical work, and knowledge that benefits the broader community.
You can already submit your proposal at https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2027/cfp, but more details are coming.
Important Dates
- Call for participation(CfP) opens on October 27, 2026
- Submission for CfP closes on November 29, 2026
- Selected CfPs to be published on December 7, 2026
- Devroom on January 21, 2027
See you in Brussels!
The MariaDB Foundation believes that a healthy open-source ecosystem benefits from diversity, collaboration, and open technical discussions.
Projects don’t have to follow the same path to learn from each other. In fact, their differences often make those conversations even more valuable.
We hope this new devroom will help strengthen the connections between communities, encourage new collaborations, and provide a place for ideas to flow across project boundaries.
Whether you contribute to MariaDB, MySQL, Percona, VillageSQL, AliSQL, or another part of the ecosystem, this devroom is for you.
Mark your calendar for Sunday, January 31, 2027, spread the word among your communities, and start thinking about what you’d like to share.
Different projects. Shared roots. One M-Ecosystem.
See you at FOSDEM 2027!
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