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If anyone from Citus is reading this: how does this affect your business model? I remember when I asked at Strata conf a couple of years ago why isn't your stuf

If anyone from Citus is reading this: how does this affect your business model? I remember when I asked at Strata conf a couple of years ago why isn't your stuff Open Source, the answer then was "because revenue". So what changed since then?

atonse 11y ago
My hunch is that the two are not really related. Companies of any appreciable size will be happy to pay for support if they choose to make Citus a part of their critical infrastructure. And the industry reached an inflection point where there are enough companies want as much of their infrastructure to be open source as possible, that you can run a company where most of your stuff is open source, while still making a ton of money (like RedHat, CoreOS, Docker, etc)
- SwellJoe 11y ago
  I know Red Hat is making a ton of money. But, CoreOS and Docker, are they at the "making a ton of money" stage, or merely well-funded by investors?
  - atonse 11y ago
    Good point. I wondered if I should edit that specific part, but kept it anyway. But a sign of getting investors is also that they see that there's still potential of making a lot of money, in spite of being open source. That's true here too. Citus mentioned they spoke to their board (and presumably their investors too) about this change.
ascetone 11y ago
It doesn't. AGPL means the only people using it have to licensed the same.
- jgreen10 11y ago
  Well, people use MongoDB... AGPL only requires open sourcing any modifications you make to the software when you give users direct access to a server running the software, which seems like something you would never want to do in case of a database. You can use database servers running AGPL software in a closed source SaaS: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.en.html http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.en.html
  - reitanqild 11y ago
    MongoDB used to distribute drivers under a more permissive license for this exact reason IIRC.
    - jgreen10 11y ago
      Well, applications that want to use Citus can just use whichever PostgreSQL client is available.
      - reitanqild 11y ago
        Thanks, twists my head but as far as I see it could work.- IANAL
craigkerstiens 11y ago
Hi, Craig from Citus here. We have some premium features in our Enterprise edition. Many of these are features that larger enterprises will want to pay for such as security features around roles, a tool for automated cluster resizing, and enhanced load balancing tools, and of course support. Beyond that, we have a few other things in the works for the future that will cover other revenue models.
umur 11y ago
Umur from Citus here. Adding to Craig's comments: Several things have changed over the last two years that allowed us to make this happen: Most importantly, we've continued building out the product for a more broad user base, grown with more customers and users, received further funding as validation, and expanded both our team and product to offer additional revenue generating services. All put together, open sourcing Citus is something we've always wanted to do, and we are excited to continue building on it for many years to come, with the help of the community and our enterprise customers.

atonse 11y ago

My hunch is that the two are not really related. Companies of any appreciable size will be happy to pay for support if they choose to make Citus a part of their critical infrastructure. And the industry reached an inflection point where there are enough companies want as much of their infrastructure to be open source as possible, that you can run a company where most of your stuff is open source, while still making a ton of money (like RedHat, CoreOS, Docker, etc)

SwellJoe 11y ago
I know Red Hat is making a ton of money. But, CoreOS and Docker, are they at the "making a ton of money" stage, or merely well-funded by investors?
- atonse 11y ago
  Good point. I wondered if I should edit that specific part, but kept it anyway. But a sign of getting investors is also that they see that there's still potential of making a lot of money, in spite of being open source. That's true here too. Citus mentioned they spoke to their board (and presumably their investors too) about this change.

ascetone 11y ago

It doesn't. AGPL means the only people using it have to licensed the same.

jgreen10 11y ago
Well, people use MongoDB... AGPL only requires open sourcing any modifications you make to the software when you give users direct access to a server running the software, which seems like something you would never want to do in case of a database. You can use database servers running AGPL software in a closed source SaaS: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.en.html http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.en.html
- reitanqild 11y ago
  MongoDB used to distribute drivers under a more permissive license for this exact reason IIRC.
  - jgreen10 11y ago
    Well, applications that want to use Citus can just use whichever PostgreSQL client is available.
    - reitanqild 11y ago
      Thanks, twists my head but as far as I see it could work.- IANAL

craigkerstiens 11y ago

Hi, Craig from Citus here. We have some premium features in our Enterprise edition. Many of these are features that larger enterprises will want to pay for such as security features around roles, a tool for automated cluster resizing, and enhanced load balancing tools, and of course support. Beyond that, we have a few other things in the works for the future that will cover other revenue models.

umur 11y ago

Umur from Citus here. Adding to Craig's comments: Several things have changed over the last two years that allowed us to make this happen: Most importantly, we've continued building out the product for a more broad user base, grown with more customers and users, received further funding as validation, and expanded both our team and product to offer additional revenue generating services. All put together, open sourcing Citus is something we've always wanted to do, and we are excited to continue building on it for many years to come, with the help of the community and our enterprise customers.