Databases in 2025: A Year in Review

4 months ago

PostgreSQL continues to dominate the database landscape with new features like asynchronous I/O storage and skip scans.
Major acquisitions in the PostgreSQL space include Databricks buying Neon for $1B and Snowflake acquiring CrunchyData for $250M.
Distributed PostgreSQL projects like Multigres (Supabase) and Neki (PlanetScale) aim to bring horizontal scaling to PostgreSQL.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) became a standard for integrating LLMs with databases, with widespread adoption across DBMS vendors.
MongoDB sued FerretDB over alleged patent and trademark infringements, sparking legal debates about API replication.
New file formats like Vortex, F3, and AnyBlox emerged to challenge Parquet's dominance in columnar storage.
Significant acquisitions included DataStax (IBM), Confluent (IBM), and Neon (Databricks), among others.
Notable funding rounds: Databricks raised $5B, ClickHouse $350M, and Supabase $200M.
Larry Ellison became the richest person in the world, with Oracle's stock surge contributing to his $393B net worth.
Several database companies shut down, including Fauna, PostgresML, and Voltron Data, signaling industry consolidation.

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