The next plan is to add an essential functionality: database encryption. Therefore, best practice encryption-methods will be used for enabling MariaDB users to carefree store their data in the cloud. Michael Widenius and Elmar Eperiesi-Beck met in Finland on April 16th and 17th, in order to discuss the details of this ambitious task. Together with influential developers of MariaDB and eperi’s System Architect Denis Endro, they developed a revolutionary concept to integrate the eperi database encryption in MariaDB.
“The MariaDB evolution out of MySQL is a significant community statement, demonstrating the power of Open Source. We contribute to this by integrating our proven database encryption in one of the next MariaDB versions.” states Elmar Eperiesi-Beck, Managing Director of eperi GmbH.
MariaDB and eperi match perfectly because their passion for Open Source products unites them: As an Open Source Community Fork of MySQL, Maria DB increasingly gains influence. And eperi consequently uses its Open Source Security Runtime (secRT) as a basis for all its solutions. The secRT was developed in co-operation with the BSI (Federal Office for Information Security).
“There is a vast demand for database encryption in the MariaDB community. And I’m glad, the german IT security expert eperi supports us with this special task”, states Monty.
Currently the “eperi Gateway for Databases” is available for Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle databases, protecting all database content against unauthorized access. Outside the database, all cryptographic operations get processed in the safe environment of the gateway. Also the keys are stored in the gateway and not in the database. Thus, even database administrators cannot access unencrypted data.
With MySQL, Michael Widenius brought a fundamental change to the IT world. Thanks to the free database, online shops and dynamic websites developed rapidly. “MySQL” was named after Monty’s eldest daughter My and “MariaDB” was named after his youngest daughter Maria. Monty’s son Max name was once upon a time used to rename SAPDB to “MaxDB” in an effort to promote SAP’s database.
MySQL AB, which was founded by Michael Widenius, David Axmark and Alan Larsson in 1995, was bought for a billion US dollars by Sun Microsystems in February 2008. Monty left Sun Microsystems in 2009, because he was unsatisfied by the MySQL development. Then he founded Monty Program AB and gained a multitude of former MySQL programmers for his cause, starting the development of the MySQL spin-off MariaDB. Finally, Oracle took over Sun Microsystems in 2010.
In the end of 2012, Michael Widenius and the founders of MySQL AB started the MariaDB Foundation, in order to support and protect the development of MariaDB.