Postgres pioneer credits Oracle with helping his database take over the world

INTERVIEW Oracle inadvertently helped turn PostgreSQL into the database technology now backed by Microsoft, AWS, and Google, according to Postgres creator Michael Stonebraker. Speaking to The Register earlier this month, UC Berkeley professor emeritus Stonebraker said Oracle's decision to retain MySQL after buying Sun Microsystems helped propel PostgreSQL toward dominance, at least among systems that use or support its wire protocol. PostgreSQL was launched 30 years ago this summer, adding SQL support to Stonebraker's earlier Postgres system, first proposed in 1986. After slowly gaining popularity, PostgreSQL has seen its usage explode in the last five years. It became the most popular choice of database among developers in 2023, according to the Stack Overflow survey. Beyond the popular DBMS itself, vendors including the cloud hyperscalers, CockroachDB, and YugabyteDB offer database services with varying degrees of PostgreSQL compatibility. Microsoft, for example, has contributed to PostgreSQL and launched its own distributed PostgreSQL database service designed to rival other hyperscaler systems and third-party RDBMSes. Stonebraker reckons PostgreSQL is in the process of taking over the world. "By PostgreSQL, I mean a database system that's compatible with the wire format, and so that's lots and lots of systems. All the elephants – Microsoft, Google, and Amazon – have all bet the ranch on the PostgreSQL wire format." Meanwhile, rival system MySQL is "vanishing as a competitor," Stonebraker said. Oracle acquired MySQL in 2010 as part of its purchase of Sun Microsystems, which had bought MySQL AB just two years earlier. MySQL won early fans among the second generation of online companies, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Uber. Although Oracle's custodianship of MySQL had been viewed as relatively open, concerns have grown over the past couple of years about Big Red's willingness to invest in the database. In September last year, Oracle made "widespread layoffs" across its core MySQL development team. "We have to thank Oracle for [PostgreSQL's popularity] because when they bought MySQL, everybody was afraid that they were going to dominate where MySQL went to, and that was the beginning of the PostgreSQL ascendancy," Stonebraker said. "PostgreSQL is not controlled by any vendor. It's controlled by a gang of 20 or 30-ish very smart super programmers, and so I think it will remain outside the control of any given vendor indefinitely. That's open source at its absolute best." In his career since developing Postgres, Stonebraker has founded a number of database companies, including Illustra and Vertica. Now in his 80s, the database pioneer is not ready to retire. He co-founded DBOS three years ago after proposing a data-centric operating system with a number of other researchers, including Apache Spark author Matei Zaharia. The resulting company has pivoted to AI agents, using DBOS's "time travel" capabilities to make agentic workflows more robust. It claims DBOS provides durable execution, allowing applications to recover automatically from interruptions while preserving workflow state and execution history. Co-founders Qian Li and Peter Kraft have been appointed chief executive officer and chief technology officer, respectively. Databricks and CockroachDB, the latter of which offers PostgreSQL compatibility, are partnering with the company and using its technology in AI agent deployments. ®