Percona is proud to formally state our support for the Valkey project and its community. We will soon offer commercial support for the open source Redis alternative, Valkey.
The world of open source is no stranger to controversy. From its earliest beginnings, the open source movement stirred many a debate and rustled more than its fair share of feathers. After all, the very idea of open source — of taking the fruits of one’s innovation and labor and making it freely and openly available for anyone and everyone to do with it whatever they please — wasn’t just a fresh take on software development. It was an affront to some of society’s most firmly held (and fiercely defended) beliefs — including the idea of intellectual property, private ownership, and the all-important pursuit of profit.
When you look at it that way, it should have come as no surprise when Steve Ballmer called Linux “a cancer”, which “attaches itself, in an intellectual property sense, to everything it touches”. What was surprising, however, was when both Ballmer and Microsoft later recanted the statement, making an almost complete one-eighty on their stance several years later.
Open source opportunism runs counter to the movement’s core beliefs
So why the change of heart? Well, it wasn’t a sudden distaste for profit. Nor was it an epiphany regarding the philosophical merits of open source principles. No, it was because they saw the way the industry was heading and realized that a (highly selective) switch to open source would ultimately be beneficial to their bottom line. And they weren’t alone. Over the past decade, we’ve seen the once-fringe, iconoclastic open source movement — mostly comprised of academics, activists, and enthusiasts — become the very definition of mainstream; with over 78% of private enterprises now using open source software and roughly 97% of all applications (proprietary or otherwise) leveraging at least some open source components or code.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe this is fundamentally a good thing. However, beneath open source’s apparent ubiquity lies an ugly truth — while open source software has gained widespread acceptance, acceptance of open source principles remains scarce. And there’s perhaps no better evidence of this truth than the recent spate of high-profile “open source defections”. In a relatively short period of time, we’ve seen a number of once “staunchly committed” open source organizations — including Elastic, Red Hat, and HashiCorp — turn away from their founding OS principles and move towards more restrictive, commercial licensing.
Open source’s true believers strike back
Unsurprisingly, these moves have inspired no shortage of ire from the open source community. However, until now, the common refrain heard from these open source turncoats has been more or less along the lines of “too bad, so sad”. And their once loyal communities were simply cast adrift.
That is, until now. Last month, Redis became the most recent company to claw back its open source licensing. Beginning today, all future versions of Redis will be released with source-available licenses. Starting with Redis 7.4, Redis will be dual-licensed under the Redis Source Available License (RSALv2) and Server Side Public License (SSPLv1).
This came as a harsh blow to many Redis users. However, rather than becoming just the latest in a growing list of affronts to the users and supporters of open source, the Redis decision became a turning point. On March 28, the Linux Foundation announced its intent to form Valkey, an open source alternative to the Redis in-memory, NoSQL data store. Soon after, support for Valkey poured in from not only the community but also some rather unexpected sources — including AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle.
Why Percona stands with the Linux Foundation in support of Valkey
I’ll resist any speculation as to why some of these less likely proponents have come out in support of Valkey. But, what I can speak to with the utmost confidence is why Percona has chosen to do so — and it begins with our commitment to open source, not as a business model, but as a philosophy.
At Percona, we believe an open world is a better world. Our mission is to enable everyone to innovate freely by providing the best open source database software, support, and services we can provide. And when we say “everyone,” we mean everyone. From individual enthusiasts to entrepreneurs to global enterprises, we believe in the virtue and value of open source.
Currently, Percona has offerings for MySQL, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL. But we’re a company that’s always operating under the mindset of evolution and growth, and Redis has been on our radar for a while. With so many of our customers and users also being users of Redis, frankly, it just makes sense.
For over 17 years, we have been the unbiased champions of open source databases. And now, thanks to the Linux Foundation and the growing Valkey community, Percona has the opportunity to offer its contributions and support to yet another great open source project — one that shares our most core values and central beliefs.
And, on behalf of the entire Percona team, we can’t wait to get started…
Learn more about commercial support for Valkey from Percona, and read the full Linux Foundation announcement:
Commercial support for Valkey Linux Foundation announcement
