Database company MariaDB Plc announced today that it’s spinning out SkySQL Inc., a cloud database subsidiary that has acquired the full rights to its SkySQL database-as-a-service product.

Following today’s move, SkySQL will become the exclusive provider of the SkySQL DBaaS offering, which is a cloud-hosted and production-grade version of the MariaDB database. SkySQL said that by launching as an independent entity, it will be able to accelerate the pace at which it delivers new features to the platform.

One of its main priorities is to launch the service on Microsoft Azure. Currently, customers can access it via Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

MariaDB launched SkySQL in 2020, saying it’s the cloud-native version of the popular MariaDB database, which is an alternative to the popular open-source MySQL database. One of its main advantages, according to MariaDB, is that it’s built atop the Kubernetes orchestration manager for self-contained software environments, better known as containers, which allow applications to run on multiple computing platforms. Because it’s founded on Kubernetes, SkySQL can assimilate with any kind of cloud infrastructure.

The cloud-native nature of SkySQL means that it’s significantly easier for customers to manage their database deployments. It’s also easier to license and manage compared to alternative database products, such as Oracle Corp.’s database. In addition, SkySQL is one of the first DBaaS services to provide support for row, columnar and combined row and columnar storage, which is a technique that makes it possible to process transactions and analytics in one place, on the same dataset.

SkySQL also claims higher availability and greater scalability than other kinds of databases, thanks to its adoption of MariaDB’s proprietary MaxScale and Xpand technologies. MaxScale is an advanced database proxy that acts as a kind of invisibility cape, hiding the database layer from the applications that run on it. It also helps coordinate automatic failover, transaction replay, load balancing and read/write splitting.

Xpand is MariaDB’s distributed SQL database tech. It’s designed both to tolerate any infrastructure failures and also to maintain availability no matter what happens by storing multiple copies of data on different database nodes. SkySQL has previously claimed that these features make its database “invincible” and able to survive any kind of disaster.

MariaDB Chief Revenue Officer Jon Bakke said in a 2022 interview on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, that the cloud-native aspect of SkySQL enables customers to take advantage of integrated data services, as opposed to siloed data services. “It’s the only place you could get the enterprise version of MariaDB in a cloud service,” he explained at the time. “We want it integrated in the service so that it’s one data provision, one data capability for the application developer.”

As a separate entity, SkySQL will be led by its Chief Executive Officer Nithin Rao, who previously co-founded the data analytics startup Definitive Intelligence Inc. He’s joined by Chief Technology Officer Jags Ramnarayan, a former senior vice president at MariaDB who helped develop SkySQL, and Chief Product Officer Saravana Krishnamurthy, another veteran of the database industry. In addition, the foundational technical team that developed SkySQL has joined the new company.

Rao told SiliconANGLE that he and his team are committed to building on SkySQL’s strong foundation, which consists of a successful cloud database solution with product/market fit and a customer base, and revenue that’s doubling year over year, as well as a very talented team. By spinning out SkySQL, the new company will ensure that it remains the “definitive choice” for those customers that want the best MariaDB experience in the cloud,” he said.

MariaDB’s vice president of customer success, Kurt Haberkamp, said he’s happy to see the emergence of SkySQL. He stated that its founding team is well equipped to take over supporting, selling and developing the DBaaS product, and will ensure a smooth transition for all existing customers.

Here’s Bakke’s full interview, where he discusses the benefits of SkySQL in more depth:

Image: SkySQL