Hetzner has upgraded its database system from MySQL 5.5 to MariaDB 10.0.

MariaDB is a relational database management system which provides additional features compared to MySQL 5.6.

The system is an open-source, community-developed fork of MySQL and its high compatibility with MySQL allows for a seamless migration to the new system.

Hetzner said the migration will improve long-term compatibility with various content management systems and includes additional benefits for customers.

Improvements delivered by upgrading to MariaDB include increased performance, better security, and better support.

MariaDB is used by companies like Wikipedia, Google, and WordPress, and is included as the default RDBMS for most major Linux Distributions – including Red Hat 7 and Debian 8.8