The Future of MySQL is Open - Our Vision - Percona

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Percona for MySQL • A vision document • 2026
Percona has built open source MySQL software for nearly 20 years. Percona Server for MySQL is a free, GPL, drop-in alternative to MySQL. Same database, none of the licensing fees.
MySQL runs more of the world than any other open source database. It is in the products people use every day, the systems enterprises depend on, and the platforms developers reach for when they need a database that just works. That future depends on an open source community that keeps MySQL fast, faithful to its roots, and ready for the workloads that come next.
This is the vision for Percona for MySQL: how Percona serves teams running MySQL and Percona Server for MySQL. It is one part of Percona’s work in the broader MySQL ecosystem, as the OurSQL Foundation defines it, alongside Percona for MariaDB.
The world we are building toward
The workloads it powers are evolving faster than the database itself. Teams are adding semantic search, recommendations, and retrieval-augmented generation alongside the transactional applications they have run on MySQL for years. Operations are moving onto Kubernetes. Security, compliance, and identity expectations are rising. The MySQL ecosystem itself is fragmenting, with forks diverging from upstream and proprietary clouds adding features behind closed doors.
Through all of this, MySQL itself remains the constant. The teams that build on it should not have to choose between staying current with MySQL and getting the operational maturity, performance, and emerging capabilities they need. They should have both, in open source, on any infrastructure they choose.
Two words, one promise. Trusted, because the foundation of everything we do is faithful, reliable, drop-in compatibility with MySQL. Innovator, because reliability alone is not enough. We push the database forward in the open, solving the real production problems teams face today and building the capabilities they will need tomorrow. Our innovation is additive: an application that runs on the matching MySQL Community release behaves the same on Percona Server for MySQL unless it chooses to use what we add.
Faithful, reliable, drop-in compatibility with MySQL. The MySQL you know, hardened by our expertise and surrounded by the operational tooling that makes it production-ready at scale.
Pushing the database forward in the open. Solving the real production problems teams face today and building the capabilities they will need tomorrow: vector, Kubernetes, modern security, PITR, observability, and the new operator surfaces emerging around them.
Vector search built into the transactional engine. A production-grade Kubernetes operator. Enterprise-grade security. Nearly 20 years of running MySQL in production.