Open source database software developer Percona is transitioning its cloud-native database-as-a-service (DBaaS) Everest platform into a new independent open-source project called OpenEverest.
The platform automates the deployment, provisioning, and management of MySQL, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL databases. The move reflects Percona’s commitment to open collaboration and to building a long-term, community-driven platform for managing modern data infrastructure.
Percona hopes that an independent project will encourage broad participation from individuals, partners, and organizations beyond its own resources. It welcomes independent contributors and maintainers from across the industry, ensuring community needs shape its roadmap rather than a single vendor’s commercial priorities.
Blair Rampling, Percona’s VP of product management, said OpenEverest represents the next stage in the project’s evolution.
“By establishing it as an independent open-source project, we are creating the conditions for broader collaboration, faster innovation, and long-term sustainability, while maintaining continuity and enterprise-grade support for users,” he said when announcing the transition in January.
Expanding Existing Architecture
Blair noted that OpenEverest’s architecture will enable integrations beyond databases, supporting a wider range of data infrastructure and operational use cases. The long-term vision for OpenEverest is to provide a common, open foundation for managing, operating, and extending modern data platforms.
As an independent project, it can work more closely with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and the broader cloud-native ecosystem. It will support open governance, ecosystem growth, and long-term success.
OpenEverest will also provide continuity for existing users. They will continue to receive stability through Percona, while benefiting from a more open ecosystem and a growing contributor community.
“For existing users, their experience should remain largely the same. Percona continues to provide enterprise-grade support, consulting, and services, and customers can keep running their environments with the same reliability and stability they’ve come to expect,” confirmed Sergey Pronin, founder of Solanica, the newly formed ownership entity for the project.
New Ownership Subsidiary Takes Over
Percona created a wholly-owned subsidiary to manage OpenEverest rather than donating the project directly to an existing foundation like the CNCF immediately. That decision reflects Percona’s vision for Everest, as the platform quickly expanded beyond what any single company could reasonably support on its own, according to Pronin, formerly the VP of product at Percona.
“Creating Solanica gives the project a dedicated team whose sole focus is growing OpenEverest as a broad, multi-vendor platform, while Percona continues contributing expertise and enterprise support,” he told LinuxInsider.
This structure allows the open-source project to evolve independently while still benefiting from the strong ecosystem backing of Percona and other community members, he added.
“Solanica’s role is to help grow the OpenEverest ecosystem while keeping the core platform open and community-led. The open-source project remains the foundation, while Solanica focuses on building complementary software and coordinating partnerships that help organizations adopt the platform at scale,” he said.
Governance Model Prevents Vendor Capture
The subsidiary ownership plan will keep OpenEverest’s development out of a single vendor’s priorities. If a competitor to Percona wants to contribute a major feature or support for a rival database, mechanisms are in place to ensure those contributions are evaluated fairly and integrated.
“OpenEverest is being built with open governance and a multi-vendor mindset from the start. That means roadmap decisions, contributions, and new integrations are evaluated transparently through community processes rather than any single vendor’s priorities,” Pronin explained.
For example, if a competitor contributes a feature or support for another database, Solanica’s community will evaluate it like any other contribution, based on its technical merit and value to the community, he offered.
Expands Beyond Databases
The project’s goal is to expand as an extensible platform for modern data infrastructure beyond just databases. That reach could include AI/ML pipelines, streaming data, or perhaps cloud-native storage orchestration.
“Our current focus is strictly on perfecting database operations, but OpenEverest was designed to be the management layer for the entire modern data stack. As we look beyond databases, our roadmap is specifically targeting high-friction components like LLM hosting for AI, streaming via Kafka, and object storage,” Pronin said.
He noted that Solanica is paying particular attention to object storage, planning to offer a stable, managed alternative to MinIO following their recent move away from traditional open-source accessibility. However, he strongly clarified that Solanica is not a storage company.
“We don’t want to manage your disks. Our goal is to provide the orchestration and enterprise-grade guardrails for these tools while integrating seamlessly with the infrastructure you already have in place,” he insisted.
Target Set on CNCF Sandbox Project
Pronin emphasized that the process for this primary goal has already started. The application has been submitted and is awaiting formal review the CNCF Technical Oversight Committee.
“Moving into the Sandbox isn’t just a badge for us. It’s about moving the project to neutral governance so the community can trust that OpenEverest won’t be subject to the rug-pull licensing shifts we’ve seen elsewhere in the industry,” he said.
Pronin noted that this year’s milestones focus on demonstrating community sustainability. That involves expanding the contributor base beyond Solanica employees and formalizing an open governance model that allows outside partners to influence the roadmap.
“We aren’t waiting for the CNCF’s stamp to start acting like an open-source project. We’re building that foundation now,” he declared.
More Than a Rebrand
The transition to OpenEverest improves security, stability, and feature velocity for the Everest product. The biggest difference is that OpenEverest will grow as a broader ecosystem rather than a product tied to a single vendor, Pronin assured.
“That opens the door to more contributors with support across a wider range of technologies. Over time, that kind of open development model tends to accelerate innovation, expand compatibility with new data platforms, and make the overall system more resilient because the needs of a diverse community of users and operators shape it,” he said.
Pronin acknowledged that open-source history is full of projects that struggled to find a balance between the founding company and the community. Percona intentionally relinquished control to ensure OpenEverest feels like it belongs to the community.
“The one thing we are giving up is sole control over the roadmap. In a typical vendor-led project, the community serves as a source of free QA, while the company decides what gets built based on its own sales targets. By moving OpenEverest into the CNCF Sandbox and adopting a neutral governance model, Solanica is voluntarily losing its ability to veto features that don’t serve our bottom line.”
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