Today, Pivotal unveils the first massively parallel processing (MPP) data warehouse to open source. Built over the past 10 years, with nearly two million lines of code, Pivotal has released the last of its core data solutions, Greenplum Database, under the Apache Software 2.0 license.

Our belief is that this is a major milestone that will change the data warehousing industry forever.

Setting the Greenplum Database apart, both architecturally and functionally, from any other open source data processing system such as Apache Hadoop(r), MySQL or even PostgreSQL, is Greenplum Database usage of massively parallel processing (MPP) to execute complex SQL analytics on very large data sets at speeds multiple times faster than any other solution tested. Powered by a next generation query optimization technology that has never been available commercially outside of Pivotal, Greenplum Database comes packed with data management quality features, upgrade and expansion capabilities also not found in open source today.

We believe that the release of such a proven and widely adopted data warehouse to open source will have substantial ripple effects throughout the industry. Most importantly, with the barrier of entry to large-scale, real-time data analytics lowered, more companies are now equipped to tackle big data challenges. As a result, we expect to see greater success in large-scale, big data analytics across every industry.

With the release of such a solid and substantial base, we also expect Greenplum to act as a catalyst to quickly build a strong community that will only serve to accelerate the trajectory for innovation on big data at a time when the industry and customers need it most.

For open source, this signals a massive change has happened. Commercial vendors, like Pivotal, recognize that open source is a better way to deliver and transform how the world builds software. Open source assures customers that the software can meet their needs in the long term, as they have the ability to update and extend the underlying code directly.

This is better for vendors as well, given that so many customers simply will not consider software solutions outside of open source. With major software vendors like Pivotal responding to market demands to open source all of their cloud and data products inside of 10 months— that’s nearly 10 million lines of code—commercial vendors worldwide will have to accept that the days of a closed source, vendor-lock in, legacy models no longer suffice in today’s modern era of computing.

The Future Is Open

At Pivotal, our mission is to transform how the world builds software. Greenplum’s release completes our vision to engage more openly across the technology communities we affect.

Pivotal is committed to continued investment in the open source Greenplum Database. Considered the bedrock to our Big Data Suite, Pivotal’s stewardship of this project is strategic to our big data efforts as a company. While maintaining the project as open for reuse, and collaboration with a broader community, especially the PostgreSQL community where the Greenplum technology began, Pivotal will continue to sponsor development, maintenance and innovation for the Greenplum technology­—as it has done with other technologies such as Cloud Foundry, Spring, RabbitMQ and Geode.

The delivery of each of Pivotal’s core software components through open source gives enterprises of all sizes the modern tools necessary to complete their digital transformation. With the broader industry able to openly standardize these tools and development practices, each of our big data, Cloud Native and agile software development technologies are poised to come together to make an enterprise’s journey to digital transformation even faster.

Want to be a part of the Greenplum Database open source community? Download the source code and register on the Greenplum.org mail list. All communications and contributions will be managed through this public email exchange.

Learn More:

Check out greenplum.org to Download the source code Join the Greenplum mail lists Contribute to Greenplum

Be part of the conversation: @Greenplum and @Pivotal or @PivotalBigData