Patrik Backman, who is the founding member of Open Ocean, has a special affinity for investing in start-ups through venture capitalism. His main interest lies in early-stage data-intensive software companies, particularly European ones. Before joining OpenOcean, he co-founded an open-source database company MariaDB, which is the culmination of his years of experience as a Product and Business Development Manager at MySQL. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Patrick Backman, General Partner, OpenOcean.

1. With what mission and objectives were the company set up? In short, tell us about your journey since the inception of the company.

When I worked at MySQL, there was persistent resistance to being sold to Oracle. And we weren't, we were sold to Sun Microsystems, but a year later Sun was sold to Oracle. Anyway, a lot of MySQL users believed that Oracle's closed strategy would eradicate MySQL's open-source culture. But what that did was open the door for us to venture into something new and fully open-source committed. We knew that the open-source community needed a database that could go to the cloud and extend because of its massive capabilities and scalability, which Oracle's MySQL model couldn't do while remaining fully committed to being open. So MariaDB emerged as an open-source database that was highly scalable and could fit a larger variety of use cases than its competitors. Today it has more than 20 million users.

2. What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors?

There are only a few big players within open-source, and all of them have built solid products. MariaDB's biggest differentiator sits in the core product being open-source. It is also safe for developers as it is single company run, and its cloud-based version (SkySQL DBaaS) offers many vital benefits. These cloud-based benefits include easy onboarding/usage, and infrastructure management by open-source experts, alongside smooth and automatic scaling that addresses the needs and demands of the application. The cloud offering builds upon the robust foundation of a database that has been truly tested in millions of installations and use cases.

MariaDB's open-source core product is what truly separates it from the competition. All server development is visible, and contributions to those servers are openly provided, reviewed, and accepted. In addition, all documents and bug reporting, management, and fixing are also open. As a result, a huge open collaborative developer community has been created, driving the continuous and superior innovation cycles witnessed within the MariaDB server.

3. How do you see the company and the industry in the future?

As the industry is inherently slow-moving, this is just the beginning for MariaDB. Stakeholders want to make the safest product choices, as they could be tied to their decision for many years. However, MariaDB has become a staple within the database landscape, and it will continue to expand massively within the next ten to twenty years.

While the database, cloud, and data economy markets continue to expand, open-source database market expansion will follow suit. I believe that in ten years, MariaDB will be the leading database platform in the world.

4. Tell us how your company is contributing to the Cloud Computing industry and how the company is benefiting clients.

MariaDB's contribution to the cloud computing industry is its ability to enhance cloud computing platforms. It provides a faster, cheaper, more scalable, and more reliable platform that offers multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud while still outperforming the other big players. I must note that MariaDB might not be the best option for everyone, as developer needs vary, but it is the most suitable option for most.

5. Kindly share your point of view on the current state of play for Big Data Analytics and its future.

Data is continuing to explode in amount and value. The ability to move, store and integrate data will be integral to thriving within the new data economy. Multi-premise data analysis will also continue to gain momentum as cloud offerings become cheaper and faster.

As the data boom continues, massive innovation will ensue. New AI and analytical process tools will develop, and new insights and solutions will be discovered. This will enable us to solve problems we've never been able to solve before. Ultimately, new value and disruption will be delivered, including a shift to more predictive and prescriptive algorithms, fixing machines before they break, shipping products before they're needed, and the potential for smart algorithms to be produced by any developer. As the EU attempts to regulate data, auditing as well as quality and security reliability initiatives will become dominant features of the data economy. Having the entire database based on open-source, and its surrounding ecosystem built upon openness creates an unsurpassed level of trust. And, if third-party access to the data of major players like Facebook is established, amazing new services and start-ups will be introduced, aimed at taking advantage of consumer data while still respecting consumer privacy.

6. How is Big Data evolving today in the industry as a whole? What are the most important trends that you see emerging across the globe?

As Big Data continues to evolve, so does the need for options and tools to promote integration. A smart integration between an array of solid apps will be a welcome sight in the start-up scene. While there have been attempts, these current apps lack broad enough solutions.  Another growing problem is the lack of solutions aimed at addressing technological burnout at the hands of integration. Something needs to emerge that either addresses this problem or creates a platform that alleviates the issue.