CockroachDB is a commercial

distributed SQL A distributed SQL database is a single relational database which replicates data across multiple servers. Distributed SQL databases are strongly consistent and most support consistency across racks, data centers, and wide area networks including c ...

database management system In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases ...

, developed by Cockroach Labs.

History

Cockroach Labs was founded in 2015 by ex-

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

employees Spencer Kimball,

Peter Mattis Peter Mattis is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and business executive. He is the CTO and co-founder for Cockroach Labs, a company he co-founded in 2014. His work as a programmer includes launching GNU Image Manipulation Program ...

, and

Ben Darnell Ben Darnell is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and business executive. He is the chief technology officer for Cockroach Labs, a company he co-founded in 2015. Prior to his work at Cockroach Labs, he worked for tech companies t ...

. Cockroach Labs founders Kimball and Mattis were key members of the Google File System team while Darnell was a key member of the

Google Reader Google Reader was an RSS/Atom feed aggregator operated by Google. It was created in early 2005 by Google engineer Chris Wetherell and launched on October 7, 2005, through Google Labs. Google Reader grew in popularity to support a number of progra ...

team. While at

, all three had previously used Google-owned DBMS’s

Bigtable Bigtable is a fully managed wide-column and key-value NoSQL database service for large analytical and operational workloads as part of the Google Cloud portfolio. History Bigtable development began in 2004.. It is now used by a number of Googl ...

and its successor

Spanner A wrench or spanner is a tool used to provide grip and mechanical advantage in applying torque to turn objects—usually rotary fasteners, such as nuts and bolts—or keep them from turning. In the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New ...

. After leaving

, they wanted to design and build something similar on their own. Spencer Kimball wrote the first iteration of the design in January 2014, and began the open-source project on

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, cont ...

in February 2014, allowing outside access and contributions. Development on GitHub attracted substantial contributions, which made the project earn the ''Open Source Rookie of the Year'' award by Black Duck Software. The co-founders actively supported the project with conferences, networking, meet-ups, and fund-raising financial rounds. In June 2019, Cockroach Labs announced that CockroachDB would change its license from the free

software license A software license is a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law, with or without printed material) governing the use or redistribution of software. Under United States copyright law, all software is copyright protected, in both sourc ...

Apache License 2.0 to their own

proprietary license Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and inte ...

, known as the

Business Source License Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." Having a business name does not separat ...

(BSL), which forbids “offer nga commercial version of CockroachDB as a service without buying a license”, while remaining free for community use.

Features

CockroachDB stores copies of data in multiple locations in order to deliver speedy access. It is described as a scalable, consistently-replicated, transactional datastore. A single instance can scale from a single laptop to thousands of servers. CockroachDB is designed to run in the cloud and has a high

fault tolerance Fault tolerance is the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of one or more faults within some of its components. If its operating quality decreases at all, the decrease is proportional to the ...

. According to popular news outlets, it is described as “almost impossible” to take down. Even if multiple servers or an entire

datacenter A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house comp ...

were to go offline, CockroachDB would not stop working.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.cockroachlabs.com/ Databases Distributed computing NewSQL Software companies based in New York City Software companies of the United States

History

Features

See also

References

External links