Cloud Database Report

Cloud Database Report

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Cloud Database Report
Cloud Database Report
Database Startups X, Y, Z: The Latest from Xata, Yugabyte, and Zilliz

Database Startups X, Y, Z: The Latest from Xata, Yugabyte, and Zilliz

What's in a name? These three Bay Area companies, respectively, are driving extended data types, data that lives forever, and "zillions" of unstructured data.

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John Foley
Jan 25, 2023
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Cloud Database Report
Cloud Database Report
Database Startups X, Y, Z: The Latest from Xata, Yugabyte, and Zilliz
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Photo credit: John Foley

Hello Cloud Database Report people! Today I’m providing updates on three cloud database startups—Xata, Yugabyte, and Zilliz—that are driving innovations in very different areas of the market.

I’ve become acquainted with each of these companies over the past year through conversations with their founders: Xata CEO Monica Sarbu, Yugabyte CTO Karthik Ranganathan, and Zilliz CEO Charles Xie.

Before I get into the details, here’s a little backstory on how these companies came up with their unique names.

  • Xata, in addition to being a surname in some parts of the world, is a play on the words extended data. Which means “a database that supports extensive data types like images, links, attachments, etc.,” explains Monica Sarbu.

  • Yugabyte translates roughly into data lives forever. The moniker is a spin on the Sanskrit word “yuga” which refers to an age of civilization, or millions of years. “Data needs to be protected and accessible forever,” Karthik Ranganathan told me.

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