In a decisive move to ensure the continued development of pgBackRest, Percona has stepped in as a sponsor following the announcement from the tool’s primary maintainer regarding his departure due to funding challenges. This initiative aims to revitalize one of PostgreSQL’s most critical backup and recovery solutions, providing users with a renewed sense of stability and direction.
Restoring Vital Support
pgBackRest serves as a cornerstone for PostgreSQL backup and recovery, relied upon by thousands of organizations to safeguard essential data. This includes numerous clients who benefit from Percona’s Expert Support for PostgreSQL. Peter Farkas, CEO of Percona, emphasized the importance of this tool: “pgBackRest has been our recommended backup solution/tool for years. When its future came into question, coordinating with other companies to keep it healthy was a straightforward decision — for our customers and for the community.”
The sponsorship not only brings David Steele, the creator and lead maintainer of pgBackRest, back into active involvement but also outlines a clear plan for the project’s future. This plan encompasses three key areas:
- Dedicated time from David Steele for bug fixes, feature enhancements, and community reviews.
- Percona’s engineering team will assist in onboarding a new maintainer, fostering a sustainable long-term maintenance strategy.
- An active effort to attract additional organizations to the sponsorship, thereby diversifying support and reducing reliance on a single maintainer.
Many popular open source projects often hinge on the efforts of just one or two individuals or are backed by a single company. pgBackRest has faced similar challenges. Percona’s investment in expanding the contributor base is a proactive step to prevent future uncertainties.
“Open source stays open,” remarked Kai Wagner, Head of PostgreSQL Product & Engineering at Percona. “That’s not a slogan. It’s how we make decisions when situations like this come up.”
For customers utilizing Percona’s PostgreSQL support and services, including Expert Support for PostgreSQL, the transition will be seamless, ensuring that their backup and recovery capabilities remain uninterrupted.
As the landscape of open source infrastructure continues to evolve, it is evident that such frameworks do not sustain themselves without dedicated support. Percona’s commitment to maintaining the integrity of pgBackRest highlights its role in the broader open source ecosystem.
About Percona
Percona is a company dedicated to open source database software, support, and services, founded on the principle that organizations should maintain full control over their data infrastructure. With a focus on avoiding vendor lock-in and compromise, Percona has been empowering businesses to operate databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and others securely and efficiently for over 20 years. Through freely available open source software and 24/7 expert support, Percona continues to champion the open-source ethos. For more information, visit www.percona.com.
