The Father of MySQL and the Penguin: A Story of Collaboration and Innovation
In a recent visit to China, Michael Widenius, the founder and CTO of MariaDB, and Chairman of the MariaDB Foundation, Kaj Arne Jørgensen, met with representatives from Tencent Cloud to discuss their strategic cooperation. This partnership is a significant milestone in the development of open-source databases, and it has far-reaching implications for the global community.
A Strong Foundation for Growth
Last year, Tencent Cloud reached a strategic agreement with the MariaDB Foundation, committing to provide a strong foundation for the development of resources and support the creation of a global open-source ecosystem. This collaboration will enable Tencent Cloud to submit code to the MariaDB Foundation without involving the core code, giving priority to the MariaDB community. In return, MariaDB will respond positively to related needs of Tencent Cloud database development, updating the agenda for iterative upgrades of Tencent Cloud services.
The “Technical Soul” of MariaDB
Michael Widenius, also known as Monty, is widely regarded as the “technical soul” of MariaDB. He is the author of the first line of code for MySQL and is known for his expertise in database development. After the acquisition of MySQL by Oracle, Monty founded MariaDB and established the non-profit MariaDB Foundation, continuing the development of open-source MySQL.
Tencent Cloud’s Commitment to Open-Source
Tencent Cloud is committed to enhancing the influence of the open-source community. Since 2017, Tencent Cloud has been a platinum member of the MariaDB Foundation, deeply involved in meetings and decision-making processes. They have spared no effort in outputting their experience and technology in the MariaDB database, which has been unanimously approved by the MariaDB community and developers.
Recent Contributions to MariaDB
Just last month, at the MariaDB User Conference in Manhattan, Tencent Cloud’s database team submitted four important patches, including:
- Binloglotate optimization: Optimized the write performance of Binlogrotate, solving the blocking problem caused by Binlogrotate.
- Binlog speed limit: Improved the speed of Binlog by limiting the write speed.
- Enterprise-class encryption plug-in function: Developed a targeted function for encryption and decryption, effectively controlling MySQL plaintext data and protecting it with encryption algorithms like RSA / DH / DSA OpenSSL.
- Droptable optimization: Optimized the process of dropping tables, reducing the utilization of resources and improving system availability.
CynosDB: A Cloud-Native Database
Tencent Cloud has also developed CynosDB, a cloud-native database that is fully compatible with open-source database engine interfaces, including MySQL 5.7 and PostgreSQL 10. This means that businesses can easily achieve “cloud” without changing their code.
A Breakthrough in Cloud Database
CynosDB has undergone nearly 60 optimizations to enhance system availability. It has been optimized with a new combination of hardware concepts, using advanced computing and storage separation architecture to enable calculation without node status, supporting second failover and recovery, and shortening data backup time to 60 seconds, 180 times faster.
Embracing Open-Source and Innovation
Tencent Cloud’s commitment to open-source is evident in their recent investments and contributions to the global open-source ecosystem. They have received platinum membership in renowned open-source organizations, including OpenStack, Linux Foundation, LF Deep Learning, and MariaDB Foundation. They are also the only platinum sponsor of Apache.
A Bright Future for Cloud Database
The collaboration between Tencent Cloud and MariaDB is a significant step towards the development of cloud databases. With CynosDB leading the way, Tencent Cloud is poised to break through the “cloud” obstacle and provide businesses with a convenient and efficient way to achieve cloud computing.