Once known for their anti-open source stance, Microsoft has quickly become one of the key players in the space, and whether you like it or not, the tech giant has become an important part of the open source ecosystem.
In a rather bizarre move, they recently launched an open source document database platform (or document store) that shares its name with Amazon’s existing offering, DocumentDB. Let’s dive into this surprising development.
DocumentDB: What To Expect?
Introduced as a MIT-LicensedNoSQL database, DocumentDB is built on the open source PostgreSQL engine to provide a portable, interoperable NoSQL solution with a clear view into the database engine's implementation and architecture.
This was put in motion after seeing PostgreSQL's growing popularity within the development community. The developers behind DocumentDB aim to address the need for a NoSQL database while also pushing for the adoption of PostgreSQL.
Thanks to its licensing, anyone can implement DocumentDB into their project, with there being no restrictions on usage, distribution, or commercial use. The end goal for all this is to create a definitive standard for open source document databases, similar to the ANSI SQL standard.
Announcing the move, Abinav Rameesh, Principal PM Manager at Microsoft, added that:
We want to encourage direct engagement between the project’s creators and the open-source community as we embark on our mission to make Postgres the most flexible NoSQL database platform and join us in creating the first implementation standard for document databases.
Get DocumentDB
If you are interested in what Microsoft's DocumentDB offers, then you can visit the project's GitHub repository to get started. On the other hand, if you are eager to learn more, then you can refer to the announcement blog.
Sourav Rudra
