Mariadb, what is it? Characteristics, advantages and applications

Mariadb is an independent relational database management system, offering high performance, flexible storage engines and perfect compatibility with MySQL. It is also distinguished by its complete safety features, its JSON support and its simple scalability. The main uses of Mariadb include web applications, cloud databases, e-commerce and business applications.

What is Mariadb?

Mariadb is a Versatile Open Source Relational Database Management Systemcreated in 2009 following a split with MySQL. It is one of the most popular database servers in the world, used in particular by Google, WordPress and Wikipedia. The continuous development of the platform is coordinated by the Mariadb Foundation, which is responsible for publication, quality insurance and security updates. The database management system (SGBD) is published under the GPLV2 license, which means that Mariadb is open source.

Like MySQL, Mariadb Use the relational database model that organizes table data. These can be linked together, facilitating complex requests and effective data management. Mariadb databases are based on universal language Sql (Structured Query Language), designed for data access and management in relational databases. The SQL command SELECT allows for example to recover data, while the command INSERT Allows you to insert data into a table.

Mariadb was developed in C and C ++, but in addition to these programming languages, it also supports Java, Python, PHP and Perl, for example. In addition, this database management system is designed for all important operating systems, that is to say Windows, Linux and MacOS, and is thus Usable in a multiplatform manner.

What features offer Mariadb?

Mariadb impresses with a full set of features that meet modern performance, scalability and security requirements. The spectrum of features includes among other things:

• Modular storage machine : Mariadb databases provide several storage machines designed to meet various needs. Innovb is designed as general transactional storage. ARIA allows you to easily copy tables between different systems, Myrocks offers stronger compression. With OQGRAPH, you can manage complex hierarchies and graphs.
• ACID compliance : Mariadb supports transactions with ACID properties (atomicity, consistency, isolation, sustainability). Thus, all operations within a transaction are either fully executed, or canceled in the event of failures, guaranteeing the integrity of the data even in the case of a system failure.
• Replication and scalability : The platform is able to distribute the loads on several servers. Columnstore was specially designed for the scalability of Big data. With Galera, there is also a synchronous multi-master cluster. Spider uses the partition to carry out Data Sharding between servers.
• Advanced SQL features : with features such as Window FunctionsTHE Common Table Expressions (CTE) and JSON data types, it is possible to carry out complex requests and modern data models.
• Extended safety features : Mariadb not only offers regular security updates, encryption and access control based on roles, but also many plugins for authentication.

What are the advantages of Mariadb?

Mariadb combines performance, opening of the source code and flexibility, which makes it suitable for projects of any size: whether small web applications or critical systems for businesses, those who use Mariadb benefit from many advantages. The summary below presents the main assets:

• Fully open source and free : MARIADB is under GPLV2 license. This eliminates license costs and gives you full access to the source code, offering you great freedom to adapt and extend the software.
• Compatibility with MySQL : Mariadb is compatible with MySQL. This generally converts existing applications, tools and scripts using MySQL without much effort.
• High performance : Thanks to features such as specialized storage engines, Mariadb manages to quickly process requests even under a large load and with large volumes of data. Horizontal scalability by replication and clustering is easy to configure.
• Active community : a global community made up of developers and companies contributes to the evolution of Mariadb databases. These continuously benefit from new features and regular updates.

What are the areas of application of Mariadb?

Mariadb Suitable for a wide range of applications, ranging from classic web projects to business solutions requiring large amounts of data, up to modern cloud and big data environments. At the same time, this database management system is suitable for both single -range entry -level projects and complex architectures. Classic use scenarios include for example:

• Web applications : Mariadb is often used to manage data in web applications. An example are content management systems like WordPress, Joomla! Or Drupal, which operate reliably on Mariadb despite a large number of visitors.
• Cloud databases : Many cloud suppliers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure offer Mariadb as a fully managed service. This allows the databases to evolve in a flexible way and to keep them automatically.
• Online stores : In electronic commerce systems like Magento, Mariadb manages product catalogs, orders and customer data. Mariadb databases guarantee rapid transactions, even with a large number of users.
• Critical applications for the company : Another area of application concerns critical environments for the company with high availability and performance requirements.

Recommended alternatives to Mariadb

The obvious alternative to Mariadb is MySQL, one of the most popular relational database management systems in the world. This open-source solution is appreciated for its great ease of use And is widely supported by Oracle, what users benefit, for example thanks to a rapid resolution of errors. In addition, MySQL is distinguished by high compatibility with programming languages, platforms and systems, which is also valid for Mariadb. Certain Linux distributions (such as Fedora, Centos and Arch Linux) have even replaced MySQL by Mariadb as standard.

There are other recommendable solutions that can be considered as an alternative. Mongodb is distinguished by unlimited horizontal scalability and is specially designed for large volumes of data. Thanks to powerful scalability options, Apache Cassandra is also ideal for Big Data applications. As for Google Firebase, this summer database optimized for mobile use.