In 2026, Percona turns 20. That milestone gives an excellent alternative to pause and replicate, not simply on the place now we have been, however on why our enterprise mannequin has labored for twenty years in an trade that has seen fixed change.
From the start, Percona has adopted a mannequin that’s generally misunderstood, often questioned, and barely copied in its pure type. We’re a tech-enabled providers firm, unapologetically open supply, constructed round deep experience in open supply databases. This mix has been the inspiration of our success, each commercially and throughout the open supply neighborhood.
A tech-enabled providers firm, by design
Percona just isn’t a product firm that later added providers. Companies aren’t an afterthought or a help perform for us. They’re the core of the enterprise.
Our clients come to us as a result of working open supply databases at scale is difficult. It requires expertise, judgment, and perception gained from years of hands-on manufacturing work. Software program alone doesn’t clear up that. What makes Percona priceless is the mixture of individuals, experience, and know-how working collectively.
The know-how allows the providers, and the providers repeatedly inform the know-how. That suggestions loop is intentional and central to how we function.
Unapologetically open supply
We have now at all times believed that open supply isn’t just a licensing mannequin. It’s a growth mannequin and a neighborhood mannequin.
Percona builds enhanced variations of the open supply databases we help. We do that to enhance efficiency, reliability, scalability, and safety primarily based on what we see in actual manufacturing environments daily. However these enhancements aren’t proprietary add-ons. They’re absolutely open supply and out there to anybody who desires to make use of them.
Simply as importantly, we work actively with the upstream communities behind these initiatives. Every time doable, the fixes, enhancements, and improvements we develop are contributed again upstream. This advantages everybody. The neighborhood will get stronger software program. Customers get higher outcomes. Percona advantages from more healthy, extra succesful ecosystems across the applied sciences we help.
It is a clear level of distinction from open core fashions, the place key performance is held again as proprietary. At Percona, the open supply model is the true model. There isn’t a synthetic line between “neighborhood” and “business” options. Our enterprise doesn’t depend upon limiting entry to software program. It depends upon serving to folks use it nicely.
Avoiding vendor lock-in by design
A direct consequence of this strategy is that we actively keep away from vendor lock-in.
Prospects can select to run Percona software program or the upstream open supply variations of the databases we help. They will additionally select their supplier for help and providers. Percona doesn’t depend on contractual or technical boundaries to retain clients.
That freedom of selection is intentional. It retains the facility the place it belongs, with the customers.
It additionally creates wholesome strain on us. The one manner Percona retains current clients and earns new ones is by constantly delivering high-quality providers and being trusted specialists in open supply databases. If we cease doing that, clients are free to maneuver on.
We consider this makes us higher. It forces us to put money into our folks, deepen our experience, and keep intently aligned with the communities and applied sciences we help.
Experience because the enterprise mannequin
Our business success comes from experience, not from proscribing entry to software program.
Prospects pay Percona as a result of they need assist designing, working, optimizing, and troubleshooting complicated database environments. They worth the expertise now we have collected by working with 1000’s of real-world deployments throughout many industries and scales.
Open supply is what makes that experience transferable, auditable, and reliable. Prospects can see precisely what we run, what we modify, and what we contribute. There are not any black packing containers.
Know-how-agnostic, in apply
Percona is technology-agnostic in two necessary methods.
First, we help a number of database applied sciences, and we add new ones after we consider we are able to genuinely assist customers and contribute meaningfully to the ecosystem. We comply with actual wants, not short-term traits.
Second, we help clients no matter whether or not they run Percona software program or community-provided upstream variations. Our purpose is to not power adoption of a selected distribution. It’s to assist clients succeed with the know-how decisions that make sense for them.
This strategy builds belief. It additionally retains us sincere. If our software program is beneficial, folks will select it. If not, our price nonetheless comes from serving to them function their programs successfully.
A mannequin constructed for the long run
Wanting again over 20 years, what stands out just isn’t how a lot has modified, however how constant this mannequin has been.
Open supply databases have grown extra highly effective and extra extensively adopted. The environments they run in have grow to be extra complicated. The necessity for deep operational experience has solely elevated. By means of all of that, Percona’s position has stayed largely the identical: assist customers succeed with open supply databases, contribute again to the neighborhood, and construct a sustainable enterprise round experience and belief.
As we glance forward, this nonetheless looks like the suitable strategy. It aligns with how open supply works, how communities thrive, and the way actual programs get run on this planet. We’re grateful to the communities which have made the final 20 years doable, and we’re excited to maintain constructing, contributing, and studying collectively within the years to come back.
