Microsoft’s open source, document-oriented database system is now under the aegis of the Linux Foundation.At Open Source Summit Europe, in Amsterdam, the Linux Foundation officially welcomed DocumentDB, Microsoft’s document-oriented database system, to its ever-growing roster of open source initiatives.While the announcement might sound like another entry in the alphabet soup of open source databases, the move carries deeper significance for the future of how enterprises handle their most valuable resource: Data.Before going further, some of you may be asking: “Wait. Isn’t it Amazon DocumentDB?” It’s complicated. The names are the same, but they’re separate products.Amazon DocumentDB is AWS’s older, managed, MongoDB API-compatible database service, while Microsoft’s DocumentDB is a new PostgreSQL extension created as an open alternative to NoSQL document databases.Adding some confusion, Microsoft created DocumentDB in 2014 to be its PostgreSQL-compatible NoSQL database for its Azure cloud platform., It was later rebranded into what we now know as Azure Cosmos DB.Going forward, AWS and Microsoft will both be working on the Linux Foundation-stewarded DocumentDB. I’m glad if for no other reason than I no longer have to think, which DocumentDB?Addressing Community NeedsThis new, merged program, according to Bruce Momjian, founding member of the PostgreSQL core development team, is “an open source implementation of a MongoDB-compatible API on top of PostgreSQL.” It’s licensed under the permissive MIT License, which means you can do pretty much what you want with the code.This new DocumentDB was designed, according to Microsoft’s online announcement of the project this past January, to provide NoSQL databases with common interoperability standards. PostgreSQL was chosen for its database foundation because it met “the community’s NoSQL database needs and the universal adoption of PostgreSQL.”That’s still the goal today. As Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation executive director, said in his keynote at Open Source Summit Europe, “DocumentDB fills a critical gap in the document database ecosystem, attracting contributors, users, and champions. What’s even more exciting is that it provides an open standard for document-based applications, like what SQL did for relational databases.”Kirill Gavrylyuk, the Microsoft vice president overseeing Cosmos, stated in the Linux Foundation’s Monday announcement, “We built DocumentDB with a simple goal: give developers an open document database with the flexibility of NoSQL and the power, reliability, openness, and ecosystem of PostgreSQL.”An Emphasis on OpennessThe point of emphasizing all this openness is undoubtedly to contrast it with the NoSQL market leader, MongoDB, which changed its open source license to the non-open source Server Side Public License (SSPL) in 2018.AWS makes this clear. “DocumentDB has a goal to provide 100% compatibility with the MongoDB API,” stated Rashim Gupta, head of project for DocumentDB at AWS, in an AWS blog post.“The MongoDB API is the most popular document database API, and we want to see it continue to succeed,” he wrote. “By joining this project, we are helping customers access the same compatibility, performance, and functionality, no matter where they run their applications — in AWS, other clouds, on-premises, or locally on their desktops.”In his post on the Microsoft blog, Gavrylyuk made this point even sharper: “DocumentDB is compatible with the popular open source MongoDB drivers and tools, making it easier to use for new and existing apps.”He added, “Developers can also leverage their existing MongoDB expertise to interact with DocumentDB.”Another part of the DocumentDB value proposition rests on open governance and community-driven standards. In addition, as companies continue to adopt hybrid and multicloud strategies, databases that aren’t tied to a single provider’s platform and emphasize interoperability have the potential to gain more popularity.What comes next, now that the Linux Foundation and the project members, which besides the aforementioned supporters include Cockroach Labs, Google, and Snowflake, is to move the project forward under its newly minted Technical Steering Committee, to become a truly open source replacement for MongoDB.The post Linux Foundation Opens the Door to DocumentDB appeared first on The New Stack.