I believe data is the single most important commodity of your company.

That means choosing the right way to store it is extremely important.

Where are companies choosing to store their data?

According to db-engines ranking, 9 of the top 15 popular databases are open source.

Today, I explore why that might be the case.

What is Open Source anyway?

Ok, before we get into why open source databases are popular, let’s define open source.

There are many potential definitions, along with opinions and legalese on what truly is open source.

But for our purpose, open source is software that the code is available to read, use and even modify and distribute.

One very important component of a successful open source database is a community built up around it.

This community can make contributions to improve the software.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about why open source databases are popular.

Reason #1: Innovation

One of the main reasons that open source databases make up the majority of the top 15 databases on db-engines is because there are just so many of them.

And this is because the open source model allows you to improve upon technologies to solve niche needs.

And when those niche needs demand a new product, you start your community around improving the product.

So you have relational databases, document stores, key value, graphing, and many other types of databases that solve different needs.

Reason #2: Increased Velocity

Open source databases also increases the velocity of your company.

If you’re at the stage of a great new idea for a product, you probably don’t want to waste time fighting with budget and license requirements of enterprise databases.

Open source allows your engineers to build.

And with the variety of products, it allows them to choose the right tool for the job.

Reason #3: Increased Trust

Last, but not least, the products themselves are being trusted more.

This is the result of an active community using and contributing to the product, increasing adoption.

This might also be because the source code can be reviewed and tested against security vulnerabilities.

Also, trust in the open source model itself is increasing.

The grandfather open source databases MySQL and PostgreSQL have proven to be viable in the Enterprise.

This helps feed the cycle of adoption.

The more people that use the product, the more mature it becomes. This, in turn, encourages more companies use the product.

Conclusion

DB Engines ranking is only one source indicating the rising popularity of Open Source databases.

While Enterprise databases are still popular, Open Source databases are increasingly encroaching on their turf.

Three reasons for this is the ability to quickly solve niche problems, increasing the velocity of engineering teams, and increasing trust in open source.

If you haven’t considered open source databases to store your precious data, what’s stopping you?