MariaDB snaps up GridGain in AI push

Relational database management provider MariaDB has struck a definitive agreement to acquire in-memory computing specialist GridGain.

Founded in 2007, GridGain provides an in-memory computing platform designed to help organizations process large volumes of data in real-time. The company is also the creator of the Apache Ignite open source software.

The acquisition will see the firm’s capabilities integrated with MariaDB’s AI-ready relational database platform to deliver high-performance data infrastructure capable of supporting emerging AI workloads.

The aim is to address increasing performance demands and close the AI latency gap as businesses adopt more advanced systems that require quick access to large datasets.

In an announcement, MariaDB said the combined platform will deliver sub-millisecond data infrastructure in response to the “unprecedented demands” that agentic workloads have placed on dated enterprise architecture.

“By uniting our platform with GridGain’s in-memory data grid, we are entering a new weight class,” said MariaDB CEO Rohit de Souza. “This enables us to provide a high-performance, scalable, open alternative to the rigid lock-in of Oracle and the fragmented complexity of hyperscalers.”

Addressing the AI latency gap

GridGain’s in-memory computing technology is used to accelerate data processing for organizations running large-scale, data-intensive applications.

The platform provides security controls, high availability, distributed capability, and management features designed to drive performance and scalability.

Post-acquisition, the planned integration will combine the ACID-compliant transactional integrity of MariaDB’s own database platform with GridGain’s extreme-scale and in-memory processing capabilities to help eliminate the disk-drive tax on performance.

According to MariaDB, the integrated offering will support organizations operating across sectors such as financial services, telecommunications, logistics, and technology. Notable customers include American Express, Barclays, BNP Paribas, HPE, Red Hat, Verizon, and Virgin Media O2.

A unified approach to AI data

The MariaDB-GridGain integration aims to replace fragmented services with a unified, hybrid-cloud platform capable of tackling transactional, analytical, and AI use cases through a single, high-velocity system.

Commenting on the acquisition, Lalit Ahuja, CTO of GridGain, said enterprises can no longer afford the latency that arises from siloed data architectures.

“With MariaDB and GridGain, enterprise customers will get a unified platform that provides them the best of both worlds, performance and scale without having to give up on durability,” he explained.

“The combined technology stack will unlock one of the key enablers for agentic enterprises: high-performance and reliable data processing that powers the next generation of AI applications.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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