Who's Who in the Cloud Database Report Top 20
Who's Who in the Cloud Database Report Top 20
Out with the old, in with the new, as PlanetScale, SingleStore, Yugabyte join the list
It’s time to provide some added context to the Cloud Database Report’s Top 20, which is based on my analysis of the ever-changing competitive landscape in the database market. These companies range from firmly established industry leaders such as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, and Oracle to startups such as PlanetScale and Yugabyte, which are on the ascent.
This Top 20 list is included in my recently published Cloud Database Report 2022, and it’s an update to Top 20 list that I first introduced in February 2021. There have been a few changes, which I explain below.
The Top 20 is based on 5 criteria: Cloud-native architecture; enterprise capabilities; platform adaptability; innovation; and demonstrated business value.
The downloadable chart provides an alphabetical list of the Top 20; a snapshot of each company’s database offerings and differentiators; and my take on each company’s strengths and/or weaknesses. (Note: Substack has not enabled a PDF preview feature yet.)
Who’s in
New to the list are PlanetScale, SingleStore, and Yugabyte, each of which has a distinct value proposition.
PlanetScale, which has raised a total of $105M in funding per Crunchbase, describes itself as a “MySQL-compatible, serverless database platform.” There are actually three considerations packed into that tagline. First, MySQL (owned by Oracle) is #2 in popularity among DB Engines’ ranking of more than 380 database systems. PlanetScale is an alternative Oracle MySQL for those who want or need one. Also, PlanetScale is serverless, which is a bonus. And “platform” indicates that developers can build on & integrate with it. Finally, PlanetScale’s roots in the Vitess open source project (for database clustering) gives it added viability.
SingleStore has been rising slowly but steadily in the database market. The company traces back nearly 10 years to MemSQL, a performant database that ran in main memory. Two years ago, the company rebranded itself and its database as SingleStore with an expanded mandate—managing various data types and workloads in a “single store.” That’s in contrast to the purpose-built database model from AWS and others, which require different databases for different workloads. SingleStore argues that its all-in-one approach can reduce database sprawl.
Yugabyte offers a compelling value proposition in its ability to handle both SQL and NoSQL data formats, minimizing (if not eliminating) that tired old debate. Yugabyte is not unique in this respect, but its compatibility with PostgreSQL is a strong point. And the fact that its founders cut their teeth on Cassandra and HBase as part of Facebooks’ engineering team give the company credibility, as does Apache 2.0 licensing.
Who’s out
The expression, “out with the old, in with the new,” is apropos to the changes in the Top 20. Old-guard companies from the 2021 list that were dropped this year are Cloudera, MarkLogic, and Vertica. I have nothing against so-called legacy companies; in fact, I think they have some advantages, including years of experience, a track record, installed customer base, and hybrid cloud know-how.
But these three established companies have been displaced in the Top 20 by up-and-coming, cloud-native providers. A few words of explanation.
Cloudera bills itself as “the hybrid data cloud company,” which is a good position, but hardly unique. Last year, I said Cloudera was “under pressure” due to its background with Hadoop, which has seen a gradual decline in popularity compared to other big data platforms. In November 2021, Cloudera stopped trading on the NYSE and was acquired for $5.3 billion by private equity companies CD&R and KKR.
MarkLogic is a 20-year-old database company that has positioned its multi-model database as a data hub. That’s a relevant place to be in today’s data-driven business environment, but MarkLogic seems to be getting squeezed out of the conversation by heavy-hitters like Databricks and Snowflake. A few months ago, MarkLogic expanded its capabilities in metadata management with the acquisition of Smartlogic. Nice, but not enough.
Vertica’s website poses this question: What is Vertica? That’s what I want to know! Vertica was founded more than 15 years ago by database guru Michael Stonebraker. But it’s challenging to unravel the Vertica of today, which was acquired by HP, then took the path of Micro Focus and HPE’s software business. Vertica is now under the umbrella of Micro Focus, a public company. In September 2021, Vertica announced its analytics database as a service, called Vertica and now available on AWS. But Vertica may need to sharpen and amplify its message to be heard.
What do you think?
The Cloud Database Report Top 20 is comprised of what I consider the leading database providers in an environment where businesses need to manage their existing investments in data infrastructure while also building new modern applications.
For those who may not want to download the chart, here are the Top 20 in alphabetical order: AWS, Cockroach Labs, Couchbase, Databricks, DataStax, Google Cloud, IBM, InterSystems, MariaDB, Microsoft, MongoDB, Neo4j, Oracle, PlanetScale, Redis, SAP, SingleStore, Snowflake, Teradata, Yugabyte.
But I admit, there are hundreds of database platforms and providers to consider. Carnegie Mellon University’s comprehensive “Database of Databases” lists nearly 800 distinct database management systems. There’s truly an amazing degree of innovation and pace of change in data management.
Which is a long way of saying, not everyone will agree with my choices for the Top 20. I welcome feedback and ideas.