FoundationDB completed a transaction today for Database-as-a-Service company Akiban. The move combines the FoundationDB key-value store with Akiban’s existing scalable, cloud-based SQL access layer.
Akiban and FoundationDB were both founded in 2009. While FoundationDB focused on building a key-value store capable of performing transactions across the entire data set, Akiban focused on building a SQL access medium for the cloud.
Ori Herrnstadt, CEO of Akiban, said that his company built its own key-value store, but discovered that FoundationDB was a better alternative for its needs. Nick Lavezzo, cofounder of FoundationDB, said that his company was hoping to add a SQL access layer to its database over the next two years.
“Now, instead of being two years out, SQL support is a matter of months out,” said Lavezzo. “That’s going to further differentiate us from our competitors. We can offer a key-value store, we’ll soon have a document store, and full SQL support. We’ll have many models accessing the same database and able to do atomic operations that span all data and all data models in the cluster.”
Herrnstadt said that the merging of Akiban and FoundationDB should take only a few months to complete. “It speaks to the natural fit of the two systems. It speaks to the right levels of abstraction we both sought as companies, that makes this integration work. There isn’t a lot of work that is needed for the huge amount of benefit we get,” he said.
