MariaDB highlights in 2024: Vectors, K1, and contributions

New Year’s Eve is when everyone takes stock of the year that has passed. At MariaDB Foundation, we’re no different.

The technical highlight: MariaDB Vector

It’s not hard to pick the technical MariaDB highlight of the year: It’s MariaDB Vector.

No big surprise there: The biggest new thing in IT is AI. AI is getting mainstream. Mainstream applications need databases. Databases need stability, performance, ease of use. And low cost.

The solution: MariaDB Server. It’s relational. It’s standard. It’s Open Source.

The business highlight: MariaDB plc on a solid footing

It’s equally easy to pick the business MariaDB highlight of the year: K1 taking over MariaDB plc.

With the K1 investment in MariaDB plc, uncertainty has been removed. Each year, nearly 90 % of the new lines of code written for MariaDB Server come from MariaDB plc. Having new owners who have the resources to continue the trajectory is a big relief for the community.

For MariaDB Foundation, the MariaDB plc commitment to the community is visible directly by the new CEO Rohit de Souza entering our Board of Directors, together with CPO Vikas Mathur as his deputy quickly getting the gist of how MariaDB Foundation and MariaDB plc can jointly succeed, for the best of the MariaDB Server users.

The community highlight: A record level of contributions

While MariaDB plc is crucial to the development of MariaDB Server, they’re not alone. Over the years, we have got more and more contributions from a growing number of contributors.

Case in point: Amazon AWS is a key contributor to MariaDB Vector.

The openness highlight: our Board Minutes

Of course, there is much more to be said about MariaDB Foundation in 2024 than the three highlights mentioned above. Besides our many blogs, event talks, and videos, the place to go to for an overview is our extensive Board Meeting minutes (remember: we take pride in Openness).

At this point, I’d like to extend my thank you to our past Board Members for their great contributions to MariaDB Server – to Paul O’Brien, former MariaDB Plc CEO, and to Sirish Chandrasekaran, General Manager, Amazon RDS.

Looking forward to 2025

With two Diamond Sponsors totalling 1m€ and several Platinum Sponsors at 100k€ each, MariaDB Foundation is looking forward to plenty of rewarding work with the MariaDB Server users in 2025. Happy New Year!