Microsoft Acquires Another Open-Source Company, Citus Data (cnbc.com)

Microsoft on Thursday said that it's acquiring Citus Data, a start-up that has commercialized open-source database software called PostgreSQL. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. From a report: The deal could help Microsoft make its argument that it supports open-source technologies, particularly in the cloud, while continuing to make money from popular proprietary software like Windows and Office. In the cloud business, Microsoft wants to use openness as a way to pick up business amid competition from Google, market leader Amazon and others. Currently, Citus Data's website advertises a version of its database software that's hosted on Amazon Web Services. Microsoft's blog post announcing the acquisition mentions the competing Azure cloud 10 times.

Comments

Re:Citus Does Not Own PostgreSQL

[AleRunner]

They matket an add-on to helpit scale and they offer PostgreSQL as SaaS.

Relax;

Apple did not "own" BSD. They still managed to completely dominate the BSD desktop market to the extent nobody even thinks of it as BSD. PostgreSQL has weak licensing and so their community is vulnerable to commercial takeover.

What OpenSource?

[El_Muerte_TDS]

I don't see any offerings from Citus Data which are open source.

Re:Citus Does Not Own PostgreSQL

[Rob Y.]

Well, I guess it's possible that Microsoft no longer cares about making money off of SqlServer. Perhaps it's more important to their go-forward business model that developers target Azure and generate recurring hosting revenues without having to incur development costs for a database server. Think Edge/Chromium.

The business model for Edge is no longer 'make sure web apps keep you tied to Windows', it's now "we want to spy on you and feed you ads - either like Google or so Google can't". And while we're at it, our web apps can be cross platform like everybody else's that simply targets Chrome.

If they were to rebrand PostgreSQL on Azure as AzureSQL, they could switch their DB business model from "make sure your backend database code keeps you tied to in-house Windows servers" to "we want you to run your backend on our cloud - either like MySQL or so Oracle can't get your business".

Can the mythical Microsoft Linux be far behind?