Announcing New Release of MariaDB Enterprise Platform

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Building on our history of delivering enterprise database solutions, we are launching a new iteration of the MariaDB Enterprise Platform. The MariaDB Enterprise Platform 2025 release represents our vision for a complete data management solution that brings together our enterprise database technology for OLTP and OLAP queries with our database proxy, making it easier for organizations to deploy, secure and manage their critical database infrastructure.

What is the MariaDB Enterprise Platform?

The MariaDB Enterprise Platform represents a shift in how organizations can deploy and manage their database infrastructure. We bring together all the essential components needed for enterprise database deployment into a single, integrated platform:

  • MariaDB Enterprise Server: Our flagship database engine, built with enterprise-grade security, performance and reliability
  • MariaDB MaxScale: Advanced database proxy providing load balancing, security and routing capabilities
  • Optional Extensions: Including Galera for multi-master replication and ColumnStore for analytical workloads
  • Enterprise Tools: Comprehensive suite of management, monitoring, and maintenance tools
  • Cloud-Native Components: Docker images and our upcoming Kubernetes Operator for modern deployment scenarios

This platform approach simplifies the procurement and support experience by bundling essential database components together. Instead of managing multiple vendor relationships and support contracts, organizations get a complete set of enterprise database technologies backed by unified MariaDB support and services.

New Enterprise Server Version 11.4

With the launch of MariaDB Enterprise Platform, we’re delivering significant innovations across the platform. This release represents a comprehensive update, with improvements spanning database operations, security and performance.

Leveling Up JSON Processing

Our latest release brings improvements to how applications interact with your data. For example, we have expanded our JSON support with new functions that make working with JSON data more intuitive and efficient. These new functions cover everything from basic operations to advanced data manipulation. You can:

  • Normalize JSON documents for consistency
  • Perform deep comparisons between structures
  • Filter specific keys from objects
  • Find intersections between arrays
  • Validate against schemas
  • Transform data between object and array formats

The above additions make working with JSON in databases more intuitive and flexible, especially when dealing with complex data structures or needing to ensure data quality. These tools are particularly valuable for applications that need to handle varying JSON formats or maintain strict data validation requirements while processing JSON documents within the database itself.

Streamlined Schema Management

Database schema management has been updated with two new features:

  • The new built-in Online Schema Change (OSC) enables non-blocking alterations for InnoDB, Aria, and MyISAM storage engines. This eliminates the need for external tools like pt-online-schema-change by allowing table alterations without locks. In addition, we have enabled OSCOptimistic ALTER TABLE for replication, which reduces replication lag by executing schema changes in parallel between primary and replica servers.
  • Enhanced partitioning management with new operations like converting partitions to tables and vice versa, making database maintenance more flexible and efficient
Enhancing Performance, Data Management, Security and Operations

Enterprise Server 11.4 introduces several operational improvements that enhance database performance and security:

  • A new cost-based optimizer (creates the most efficient plan to execute a query) that has significant improvements, for example making better use of modern SSD characteristics, resulting in more efficient query execution
  • Simplified InnoDB tablespace management with improved control over log files and data files
  • Zero-configuration encrypted connections with SSL enabled by default, providing enhanced security without the complexity of manual configuration
  • Advanced semi-join optimizations, backup capabilities, and replication improvements for better performance and reliability

Preparing for AI Innovation with Vector Support

The MariaDB Enterprise Platform is designed to grow with your needs. We’re excited to announce that vector data type and vector search capabilities is now available to customers as part of an Enterprise Server 11.4 tech preview release, enabling organizations to:

Performance in the community server version has also shown to be significantly better than pgvector, a PostgreSQL plugin, according to a third party benchmark: https://smalldatum.blogspot.com/2025/01/evaluating-vector-indexes-in-mariadb.html?m=1 

Below is a synopsis on the performance benefits shown in the above link:

  1. Performance: MariaDB delivers 1.5x–2x higher QPS at similar recall targets compared to pgvector.
  2. Index Creation: MariaDB creates indexes 2x–3x faster, making it more efficient for iterative development.
  3. Ease of Use: MariaDB is simpler to tune with fewer parameters to configure, reducing complexity.

Vector datatype and search support will reach stable feature status in February 2025 and will be backported into enterprise server in the next maintenance release this Spring.

MaxScale 25.01: Enhanced Database Proxy

The latest version of MaxScale brings powerful new capabilities to the platform:

  • Workload Capture and Replay (WCAR) is a powerful system that captures database traffic on MaxScale instances, enabling teams to record real-world database interactions and replay them later for testing, tuning, and troubleshooting purposes.
  • The Diff Router is a specialized testing tool that simultaneously directs identical database workloads to multiple database servers, enabling detailed comparison of behavior between different server versions or configurations.

Cloud-Ready and Container-Native

Modern enterprises need flexibility in how they deploy and manage their database infrastructure. The MariaDB Enterprise Platform delivers this through:

  • GA release of Enterprise Server docker images
  • Upcoming MariaDB Kubernetes Operator for MariaDB Enterprise Server
    • Acts as an expert Database Administrator
    • Manages backups, security and point-in-time recovery

Ready to give the MariaDB Enterprise Platform a Spin?

The introduction of the MariaDB Enterprise Platform marks a new chapter in enterprise data management. By providing a complete, integrated solution, we’re making it easier than ever for organizations to deploy, manage, and scale their database infrastructure.

Ready to reduce complexity and unlock the full potential of your database infrastructure? Contact us today for a personalized demo and see how the MariaDB Enterprise Platform can transform your operations.

Customers can download the latest MariaDB Enterprise Platform components by visiting mariadb.com/downloads/enterprise.

Join our upcoming webinar to learn more about MariaDB Enterprise Platform 2025.