OurSQL Foundation launches to support MySQL users, developers, and companies

New community initiative aims to support MySQL users around best practices, future developments, and knowledge sharing

RALEIGH, N.C., May 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today marks the launch of The OurSQL Foundation, an open organisation that will support the community of users, developers, and companies that are invested in the success of MySQL. The new Foundation will provide a venue for those involved in the MySQL community using, building and deploying applications that use MySQL or the broad range of compatible software to share with their peers, to access knowledge, and to provide feedback on future development in a transparent and consistent way. This community organization will support the growth and use of MySQL as an open source database and collaborate with all players in the market, including Oracle, to see MySQL succeed with the next generation of developers and applications.

The OurSQL Foundation has been created as a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization to represent the companies working around MySQL and compatible technologies as part of their deployments, as well as those businesses and partners that support MySQL use with services or products. This will include companies that deploy and support MySQL for their customers, independent software vendors that produce complementary products, as well as consultants that provide their expertise and insights.

The Foundation has been developed to support the broader community and ecosystem. Following the Foundation’s creation, the community will look into how to support and collaborate around potential member needs in the future. This collaboration may include:

Support for a vendor-neutral governance model for the Foundation, where participation is evaluated on merit, opening the door for companies and individuals to get involved and contribute to the ecosystem around MySQL.
Stewardship for the development of shared community assets - this could include community-focused information and assets that would provide insight to the community, such as a public bug database for shared issue tracking, a portal for tools and open source projects around MySQL, or a transparency log for security patches.
A central location for collaboration around the future for MySQL, representing the overall community rather than any one company or provider. This will support collaboration for users and companies around data and applications, as well as healthy competition between those companies that build products that work alongside MySQL. This is expected to include both dedicated virtual events and resources at physical events.
Development of education and training materials that the community wants to see to engage the next generation around MySQL. This may include training courses, certification and partnerships with academia, based on potential opportunities and support as a whole.

“This Foundation will provide a platform to promote and support MySQL as a database, fostering collaboration across everyone looking to contribute to the broad MySQL ecosystem. It will pool resources and provide guidance around where MySQL fits into the technology landscape today, something that has been missing over the past few years. By bringing the community together under the banner of an independent Foundation, we can demonstrate that MySQL has a valid and vibrant future ahead of it. The OurSQL Foundation will be a neutral organization that will support MySQL as a technology, helping the community as a whole to grow and succeed in parallel with Oracle’s renewed focus on MySQL community development,” said Vadim Tkachenko, Co-Founder at Percona.

The organization is an independent community led by a founding board, made up of the following individuals from the MySQL community:

Vadim Tkachenko, Technology Fellow and Co-Founder, Percona, as President
Matt Lord, Software Engineer, PlanetScale, as Secretary
Sunny Bains, Software Architect, PingCAP
Tomas Ulin, Village Historian, VillageSQL, as Treasurer
Zongzhi Chen, Manager, Cloud RDS Team, Alibaba
Jean-François Gagné, MySQL Expert and Independent Consultant
Peter Zaitsev, Co-Founder, Percona

The Foundation will follow the model that other open source foundations have taken to provide an independent, vendor-neutral space for mutual collaboration and assistance. The Foundation will be a separate legal entity that manages events, resource repositories, and adoption efforts on behalf of the community, growing the number of individuals that use and interact around MySQL, as well as providing a collective voice on the MySQL roadmap and future developments. The Foundation will start by creating Committee Groups to support the organization’s work around events, collaboration and support for using MySQL.

Supporting Quotes:

“PlanetScale has been working deeply with MySQL and Vitess for many years — helping to support the broader MySQL community and our customers as they encounter challenges operating MySQL at scale. Supporting The OurSQL Foundation is another route for us to support MySQL and help grow the community. Without the next generation of developers learning about where and how MySQL shines versus alternatives in the space, the community will continue to slowly retract. For companies that rely on MySQL at scale, keeping that pipeline of developer interest and talent centered around MySQL will be essential and the OurSQL Foundation is uniquely positioned to help foster a healthy future for MySQL.”
Matt Lord, Software Engineer, PlanetScale

“Open source involves collaboration and finding ways to give back, so that we can learn and meet our challenges together. Doing my part involves blogging and speaking around MySQL, and maintaining the Planet for the MySQL Community news aggregator. I support The OurSQL Foundation as a continuation of this effort, providing the community with a vendor-neutral forum to collaborate and to make sure MySQL keeps allowing us to meet our challenges in the years to come.”
Jean-Francois Gagné, MySQL Expert and Independent Consultant

Frequently Asked Questions:

What does The OurSQL Foundation support?

The OurSQLFoundation supports users, customers, partners and providers to collaborate around MySQL as a database technology, as well as supporting their own goals and objectives. By bringing together multiple companies and interested organisations in one place, it will provide a future voice for that community around the issues and opportunities that they want to cover.

Why is The OurSQL Foundation necessary?

The OurSQL Foundation is a 501(c)(6) non-profit created to represent the community around MySQL. It provides a voice for those involved in using, developing, or providing products or services around MySQL on the future direction for this open source database. With millions of installations worldwide using MySQL today, The OurSQL Foundation will act as an independent location to host content, support community development, and boost involvement around MySQL.

The OurSQL Foundation is independent of any specific vendor and their product or project. This means that the Foundation can support the whole community and different technology approaches, rather than looking at any one vendor’s product or strategy.

Who is behind the OurSQL Foundation?

OurSQL Foundation was created by a group of individuals involved in the MySQL ecosystem to represent the community involved around this open source database. It is not led by any one vendor or provider; instead, the community is governed by a board representing companies involved in the MySQL ecosystem and those running some of the biggest MySQL deployments globally.

Oracle is not a member of this foundation. The OurSQL Foundation will be supportive to Oracle’s goals around MySQL, but it is also independent. This will allow the Foundation to take a long-term view around MySQL as a technology, regardless of any developments or changes in the wider market. The goal for The OurSQL Foundation is to ensure that the broad MySQL ecosystem has a bright future, independent of Oracle.

How does The OurSQL Foundation compare to the MariaDB Foundation?

The OurSQL Foundation is fully independent of any specific technology vendor or provider, compared to MariaDB Foundation which concentrates on MariaDB as a technology. Any company in the MySQL community ecosystem can get involved and play a role in supporting the future for this area, so that MySQL and compatible products can compete in the market on their merits. This supports user choice, based on the principles of open source software. This approach aims to keep user needs at the forefront of this market, rather than any one vendor that is responsible for the project.

What is the future for MySQL?

The OurSQL Foundation thinks MySQL has a valid long-term future as long as it provides value to those that use it. The challenge is that this value has not been supported vocally in the market outside the close open source community that already exists. Building The OurSQL Foundation provides a way for users, customers, partners, and vendors to share their insights around where MySQL is a great fit for today’s technology problems, as well as responding to updates and developments around the database as they arise.

About The OurSQL Foundation

The OurSQL Foundation is an independent, community organization designed to support the open source database MySQL based on collaboration between companies and individuals that are involved in the MySQL ecosystem. It is not connected to or supported by Oracle. The Foundation will collaborate with Oracle around the company’s initiatives where it is mutually beneficial and support the long-term goals for the open source database.

Oracle and MySQL are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contact
Vadim Tkachenko
Co-Founder at Percona
vadim@percona.com

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