Earlier this year, we held two MySQL Summits where we discussed concerns that the MySQL ecosystem has stalled and that MySQL is no longer the automatic first choice for new projects.

Despite these concerns, we recognize that MySQL remains widely deployed in production and is still an excellent database for building a business.

We believe this slow growth stems from the lack of a neutral party to represent the diverse players in the MySQL ecosystem. MySQL is controlled by Oracle Corporation, which pursues its own commercial interests and does not necessarily account for the needs of other vendors.

That is why we created the OurSQL Foundation: to represent the interests of the broader MySQL ecosystem.

What the Foundation is

Independent. Not owned, controlled, or governed by any single vendor.

Vendor-neutral. Open to everyone working on or with MySQL: users, providers, consultants, distributions.

Non-profit. Organized as a 501(c)(6) trade association representing the broad MySQL community.

Community-led. Governed by a founding board drawn from across the ecosystem.

Our mission

The Foundation exists to serve individuals and organizations engaged in or supporting the development, deployment, and sustainability of open source, MySQL-compatible database technologies in a vendor-neutral ecosystem.

We view MySQL like Linux

Just as Linux thrives through a diverse community of distributions and vendors, so too can MySQL. Whether it is Oracle MySQL, Percona, PlanetScale and Vitess, PingCAP and TiDB, VillageSQL, MariaDB, AliSQL, AWS RDS for MySQL, or Google Cloud SQL, we view all of these as vital contributors to the success of MySQL. If your software or service helps MySQL users succeed, you are a part of the MySQL ecosystem.

Our first step

Our initial focus is to map the ecosystem and increase the visibility of smaller projects. To start, we are building a comprehensive map of the MySQL landscape, which we call the “OurSQL Universe.”

Please help us in this effort and suggest resources that might be missing. You can also join our Slack.

We will also participate in Percona Live Amsterdam on September 9–11 with our first pilot: MySQL Ecosystem Spotlight, where the Foundation shares its booth with smaller projects.

At our first conference booth, we could simply introduce the Foundation. Instead, we want to use this space to highlight smaller MySQL ecosystem projects and give them a chance to meet the conference audience, show demos, answer questions, and explain what they are building.

This is the kind of role we want the Foundation to play: not to replace existing vendors, projects, or communities, but to create more visibility, more connections, and more shared space for the ecosystem as a whole.

If you are building something around MySQL, we want to hear from you. If you know a project, tool, service, event, book, or community that should be easier to find, please suggest it. Let’s make that ecosystem visible.

— Vadim Tkachenko, OurSQL Foundation, President