Oracle's acquisition of MySQL inadvertently propelled PostgreSQL to dominance among database systems, according to PostgreSQL creator Michael Stonebraker in an interview with The Register published earlier this month. The UC Berkeley professor emeritus said Oracle's 2010 purchase of Sun Microsystems—and its decision to retain MySQL—triggered a shift that sent users toward the open source alternative. PostgreSQL, which launched 30 years ago this summer, now enjoys backing from Microsoft, AWS, and Google, with all three cloud giants betting heavily on its wire protocol.
After decades of slow growth, PostgreSQL saw its usage explode over the past five years, becoming the top database choice among developers in 2023 according to the Stack Overflow survey. Beyond the core database management system itself, vendors including the cloud hyperscalers, CockroachDB, and YugabyteDB now offer database services with varying levels of PostgreSQL compatibility. Microsoft has both contributed to PostgreSQL directly and launched its own distributed PostgreSQL database service designed to compete with other hyperscaler systems and third-party relational database management systems. PostgreSQL was initially proposed in 1986 and gained SQL support three decades ago.
"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 told The Register. He added that rival system MySQL is "vanishing as a competitor." According to Stonebraker, PostgreSQL is "in the process of taking over the world" when defined as database systems compatible with the wire format—a definition that encompasses numerous systems. He noted that "all the elephants – Microsoft, Google, and Amazon – have all bet the ranch on the PostgreSQL wire format." Stonebraker credited PostgreSQL's governance structure for its success, saying it's "controlled by a gang of 20 or 30-ish very smart super programmers" rather than any single vendor, calling it "open source at its absolute best."
The shift away from MySQL accelerated as concerns grew about Oracle's commitment to the database. Oracle acquired MySQL in 2010 as part of its Sun Microsystems purchase, which had itself bought MySQL AB just two years earlier. MySQL had won early fans among major online companies including Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Uber. Although Oracle's stewardship was initially viewed as relatively open, worries have mounted over the past couple years about Big Red's willingness to invest in the technology. In September last year, Oracle made "widespread layoffs" across its core MySQL development team. The exodus created an opening for PostgreSQL, which users saw as safer precisely because no single vendor controls its direction or roadmap.
Stonebraker, now in his 80s, isn't slowing down. He co-founded DBOS three years ago after proposing a data-centric operating system with other researchers, including Apache Spark author Matei Zaharia. The company has since pivoted to AI agents, using DBOS's "time travel" capabilities to make agentic workflows more robust by providing durable execution that allows applications to recover automatically from interruptions while preserving workflow state and execution history. Databricks and CockroachDB are partnering with the company and using its technology in AI agent deployments. The governance model that Stonebraker credits for PostgreSQL's rise—distributed control by a community of expert developers rather than corporate ownership—may prove essential as enterprises increasingly seek stable, vendor-neutral foundations for mission-critical workloads. Companies evaluating database strategies will likely weigh the trade-offs between proprietary ecosystems and community-driven alternatives with growing caution.