EnterpriseDB, a private company based in Massachusetts who provides software and services based on PostgreSQL database free and open source, acquired 2ndQuadrant, a global Postgres tools and solutions company.
That being said, according to a blog post by Bruce Momjian, this acquisition is certainly good news for these companies, too it could increase the risk for the PostgreSQL community.
In your post, classifies these risks into three categories as follows.
Bruce Momjian has been working on PostgreSQL since 1996. He is a co-founder and part of the core team of the PostgreSQL development group and has been an employee of EDB since 2006, which recently acquired 2ndQuadrant.
According to EDB, the database is gaining popularity and relevance for businesses. According to EDB's Ed Boyajian, demand has accelerated because technology has improved dramatically in recent decades.
“I am still in contact with our clients and lately they have stated that they are feeling the effects of the deep and prolonged pressures of Covid-19. These pressures reinforce their appetite for open source and their determination to move away from restrictive regulations, walled gardens, facilities, and the clouds that hold them back. Postgres' economic windfall prompts them to change their strategies. They tell me they want more database and Postgres experts who can help them meet their current and future needs, ”he said.
In summary, According to Ed, EDB's customers are the driving force behind this acquisition.
Additionally, EDB is pleased to be working with 2ndQuadrant on Postgres for the marketplace and together they will push Postgres further in areas such as replication, backup and disaster recovery, hybrid cloud deployment, Kubernetes high availability, and analytics.
EDB also believes this will allow them to offer the largest team of technical support and support specialists, as well as a combination of skills that no other vendor has.
However, not everyone sees it that way like Bruce Momjian, who believes that while this acquisition is good news for both companies, it could harm the database community or interfere with its normal development.
First, remember there is an unwritten rule that Postgres core development team should have no more than half of its members within a single company.
But the acquisition of 2ndQuadrant by EDB goes in this direction. Being himself a member of the core PostgreSQL team, which has 5 members, the acquisition brings EDB's representation on the core PostgreSQL team to 60%. In other words, EDB now has 3 people on the team.
With that, Momjian said that the core team is working to find a solution to this problem quickly. Then he said that the fact that these two companies are one-to-one reduces Postgres users' choice for support and services, especially in the North American and Western European markets.
Meanwhile Momjian added that since the Postgres community innovates in an independent way, the acquisition might not be a problem for the community software, but for Postgres company-controlled tools.
Finally he said that there is a risk that an even larger company will want to harm Postgres may acquire EDB and steer it in a neutral or negative direction for the Postgres community. Non-compete agreements between employees and the absence of other Postgres support companies could significantly prolong the duration of these effects.
In conclusion, Momjian said there is little or nothing the community can do or can do to limit these problemsbut they must be aware of the problems.
In response to Momjian, some said this acquisition is unlikely to change the vendor landscape as there are many companies offering technical support, advice and service for Postgres.
In Europe, they give several alternatives, including Dalibo, Cybertec and Postgres Professional. In the United States, outside of EDB, there are Crunchy Data and PGExperts.
Source: https://momjian.us