5 ms·

IBM to Acquire Cloudant

137 points by davis_m 13y ago

davis_m 13y ago
The email I received from Cloudant: "Hello-- Today is an exciting day for Cloudant as a business: We have agreed to be acquired by IBM [press release]. What does that mean for you as a customer? Not too much changes, actually. The key elements of Cloudant that have helped make us successful will not change. Our team will remain intact and will continue to focus on delivering innovative products backed by our world-class operations, services and support teams. Cloudant’s product strategy and roadmap will continue as before, only with faster innovation. By tapping into IBM’s global resources, we can rapidly scale our service and introduce new products that will benefit customers. Our position of providing a cloud-agnostic data layer will not change and remains an important differentiator for our business. We know that customers need options to prevent vendor lock-in as the cloud industry consolidates. Cloudant and IBM are the latest example of this trend, yes, but with some important distinctions. We have a clear agreement in place to continue developing and promoting Cloudant as an open platform. Widely accepted standards like JSON and REST APIs will remain, so customers can quickly migrate onto and off of Cloudant as needs change. Cloudant’s participation in the open source community will continue, and at an accelerated pace. IBM has a track record of funding and promoting open technologies, like Linux. Over time, we’ll work toward a similar model with the open source communities close to Cloudant. Thank you for your continued support of our business. And look for more good things from Cloudant and IBM, coming soon. Sincerely, Derek Schoettle CEO, Cloudant"
- dochtman 13y ago
  The Cloudant CTO also commented on the CouchDB developer's list: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/couchdb-dev/201402.mbox/%3C86FF6E4F-D4AF-4E3C-A94F-6C7243AB122B%40cloudant.com%3E http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/couchdb-dev/201402....
  - rdtsc 13y ago
    That link doesn't work for me
    - mbroberg 13y ago
      Here's the email that Cloudant's CTO sent to Apache CouchDB: SUBJECT: Cloudant & IBM: Our Commitment to Apache CouchDB Apache CouchDB means a great deal to me, and to Cloudant as a company. Cloudant and CouchDB have grown alongside each other over the past several years in one of the more authentic vendor/community collaborations I can think of in Apache history. Today marks the next step in Cloudant’s growth as we enter into a definitive agreement to become part of IBM. What does this mean for CouchDB? I would not have agreed to this transaction if I had any concerns about Cloudant’s ability to continue its contributions and collaboration with Apache CouchDB. IBM has a strong track record in open source software and a productive relationship with Apache; in fact, IBM was instrumental in bringing CouchDB to the ASF many years ago. IBM is fully supportive of our efforts here, and I’m looking forward to bringing increased resources to bear in support of the project. CouchDB has the potential to shape the future of distributed data management and computing. 2013 was a year of tremendous progress, as we doubled our committer base and shipped no fewer than eight releases. Already in 2014 we’ve seen amazing progress on long-standing initiatives to enhance the core of the system. The timing is right — in the market and for the community — to take the next big step forward. With your help, that is exactly what we will do. Truly, the future of CouchDB is CouchDB. Adam Kocoloski Co-Founder & CTO, Cloudant
      - nslater 13y ago
        Posted this to the blog: https://blogs.apache.org/couchdb/entry/cloudant_and_ibm_our_commitment https://blogs.apache.org/couchdb/entry/cloudant_and_ibm_our_...
BallinBige 13y ago
Their new redesign has been pretty difficult to get use to, especially with shared DB's.
- ahoff 13y ago
  The shared DBs piece has been a tough nut to crack. We decided to release the new dashboard without that piece given how much of an upgrade the rest of it was. The feedback on the new dash has been overwhelmingly positive (except for the shared DBs piece.) We are working on fixing that piece and completely deprecating the old UI. That change should be coming soon.
rdtsc 13y ago
It is funny this kind of came full circle. Damien Katz, the original CouchDB author was working on Lotus Notes as some point in his life. After many years, his "creation" comes back to IBM. There is some irony in there I think. I remember him disavowing CouchDB and urging everyone to "ride with him" towards Couchbase. There were promises about how CouchDB will get contributions from Couchbase, and how it will get RPM and packaging scripts, docs and continued help. But not much of that happened. The community split. Most CouchDB developers who ended up on the other side of the fense at Couchbase didn't end up committing or helping that much over the years. So I can't see, looking back, anything good at all about that split. But Cloudant sort of took over helping and watching over CouchDB. Quite a few of the contributors work for CouchDB, and they are very smart and helpful individuals. I hope this means good news for CouchDB as a project. I would want to see it grow.
- strmpnk 13y ago
  I'd point towards Adam Kocoloski's (CTO) recent email to the couchdb-dev list: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/couchdb-dev/201402.mbox/%3C86FF6E4F-D4AF-4E3C-A94F-6C7243AB122B%40cloudant.com%3E http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/couchdb-dev/201402....
  - nslater 13y ago
    Blog post here: https://blogs.apache.org/couchdb/entry/cloudant_and_ibm_our_commitment https://blogs.apache.org/couchdb/entry/cloudant_and_ibm_our_...
- jchrisa 13y ago
  At Couchbase we created two open source mobile embedded databases (iOS and Android) that can sync with Apache CouchDB / Cloudant / PouchDB. Which is no small contribution. Even Cloudant bases thier mobile stuff on that code. More info: http://mobile.couchbase.com http://mobile.couchbase.com Mailing list: https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/mobile-couchbase https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/mobile-couchbase
  - 13y ago
teepo 13y ago
This will likely further integrate into IBM's SoftLayer platform. The SoftLayer API already integrates with Cloudant, perhaps this means that all Cloudant compute would migrate to the SoftLayer bare metal server infrastructure. This essentially adds dedicated hardware, global footprint for data distribution, and SLA far in excess than what you can get with something like AWS Dynamo.
- mlmilleratmit 13y ago
  Actually, the majority of our servers have been on SL bare metal since ~2010.
rch 13y ago
Any details on the value of this deal floating around? At one point it seemed like all new database startups were getting pretty stratospheric valuations. At least relative to their user base. I'm sure congratulations are in order regardless. The Cloudant team certainly deserves it. They've delivered consistently impressive results with their own product offerings, and with Apache CouchDB.
fuddle 13y ago
Any ideas on the valuation of Cloudant?
mark_l_watson 13y ago
I have been a very long term customer of Cloudant (low usage, low cost customer) and I have always appreciated their tech. Especially good of them to open source BigCouch. I doubt IBM buying them will change much of their business for customers.
tzm 13y ago
Congrats team Cloudant!

137 points by davis_m 13y ago

The email I received from Cloudant: "Hello-- Today is an exciting day for Cloudant as a business: We have agreed to be acquired by IBM [press release]. What does that mean for you as a customer? Not too much changes, actually. The key elements of Cloudant that have helped make us successful will not change. Our team will remain intact and will continue to focus on delivering innovative products backed by our world-class operations, services and support teams. Cloudant’s product strategy and roadmap will continue as before, only with faster innovation. By tapping into IBM’s global resources, we can rapidly scale our service and introduce new products that will benefit customers. Our position of providing a cloud-agnostic data layer will not change and remains an important differentiator for our business. We know that customers need options to prevent vendor lock-in as the cloud industry consolidates. Cloudant and IBM are the latest example of this trend, yes, but with some important distinctions. We have a clear agreement in place to continue developing and promoting Cloudant as an open platform. Widely accepted standards like JSON and REST APIs will remain, so customers can quickly migrate onto and off of Cloudant as needs change. Cloudant’s participation in the open source community will continue, and at an accelerated pace. IBM has a track record of funding and promoting open technologies, like Linux. Over time, we’ll work toward a similar model with the open source communities close to Cloudant. Thank you for your continued support of our business. And look for more good things from Cloudant and IBM, coming soon. Sincerely, Derek Schoettle CEO, Cloudant"

dochtman 13y ago
The Cloudant CTO also commented on the CouchDB developer's list: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/couchdb-dev/201402.mbox/%3C86FF6E4F-D4AF-4E3C-A94F-6C7243AB122B%40cloudant.com%3E http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/couchdb-dev/201402....
- rdtsc 13y ago
  That link doesn't work for me
  - mbroberg 13y ago
    Here's the email that Cloudant's CTO sent to Apache CouchDB: SUBJECT: Cloudant & IBM: Our Commitment to Apache CouchDB Apache CouchDB means a great deal to me, and to Cloudant as a company. Cloudant and CouchDB have grown alongside each other over the past several years in one of the more authentic vendor/community collaborations I can think of in Apache history. Today marks the next step in Cloudant’s growth as we enter into a definitive agreement to become part of IBM. What does this mean for CouchDB? I would not have agreed to this transaction if I had any concerns about Cloudant’s ability to continue its contributions and collaboration with Apache CouchDB. IBM has a strong track record in open source software and a productive relationship with Apache; in fact, IBM was instrumental in bringing CouchDB to the ASF many years ago. IBM is fully supportive of our efforts here, and I’m looking forward to bringing increased resources to bear in support of the project. CouchDB has the potential to shape the future of distributed data management and computing. 2013 was a year of tremendous progress, as we doubled our committer base and shipped no fewer than eight releases. Already in 2014 we’ve seen amazing progress on long-standing initiatives to enhance the core of the system. The timing is right — in the market and for the community — to take the next big step forward. With your help, that is exactly what we will do. Truly, the future of CouchDB is CouchDB. Adam Kocoloski Co-Founder & CTO, Cloudant
    - nslater 13y ago
      Posted this to the blog: https://blogs.apache.org/couchdb/entry/cloudant_and_ibm_our_commitment https://blogs.apache.org/couchdb/entry/cloudant_and_ibm_our_...

BallinBige 13y ago

Their new redesign has been pretty difficult to get use to, especially with shared DB's.

ahoff 13y ago
The shared DBs piece has been a tough nut to crack. We decided to release the new dashboard without that piece given how much of an upgrade the rest of it was. The feedback on the new dash has been overwhelmingly positive (except for the shared DBs piece.) We are working on fixing that piece and completely deprecating the old UI. That change should be coming soon.

rdtsc 13y ago

It is funny this kind of came full circle. Damien Katz, the original CouchDB author was working on Lotus Notes as some point in his life. After many years, his "creation" comes back to IBM. There is some irony in there I think. I remember him disavowing CouchDB and urging everyone to "ride with him" towards Couchbase. There were promises about how CouchDB will get contributions from Couchbase, and how it will get RPM and packaging scripts, docs and continued help. But not much of that happened. The community split. Most CouchDB developers who ended up on the other side of the fense at Couchbase didn't end up committing or helping that much over the years. So I can't see, looking back, anything good at all about that split. But Cloudant sort of took over helping and watching over CouchDB. Quite a few of the contributors work for CouchDB, and they are very smart and helpful individuals. I hope this means good news for CouchDB as a project. I would want to see it grow.

strmpnk 13y ago
I'd point towards Adam Kocoloski's (CTO) recent email to the couchdb-dev list: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/couchdb-dev/201402.mbox/%3C86FF6E4F-D4AF-4E3C-A94F-6C7243AB122B%40cloudant.com%3E http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/couchdb-dev/201402....
- nslater 13y ago
  Blog post here: https://blogs.apache.org/couchdb/entry/cloudant_and_ibm_our_commitment https://blogs.apache.org/couchdb/entry/cloudant_and_ibm_our_...
jchrisa 13y ago
At Couchbase we created two open source mobile embedded databases (iOS and Android) that can sync with Apache CouchDB / Cloudant / PouchDB. Which is no small contribution. Even Cloudant bases thier mobile stuff on that code. More info: http://mobile.couchbase.com http://mobile.couchbase.com Mailing list: https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/mobile-couchbase https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/mobile-couchbase
- 13y ago

teepo 13y ago

This will likely further integrate into IBM's SoftLayer platform. The SoftLayer API already integrates with Cloudant, perhaps this means that all Cloudant compute would migrate to the SoftLayer bare metal server infrastructure. This essentially adds dedicated hardware, global footprint for data distribution, and SLA far in excess than what you can get with something like AWS Dynamo.

mlmilleratmit 13y ago
Actually, the majority of our servers have been on SL bare metal since ~2010.

rch 13y ago

Any details on the value of this deal floating around? At one point it seemed like all new database startups were getting pretty stratospheric valuations. At least relative to their user base. I'm sure congratulations are in order regardless. The Cloudant team certainly deserves it. They've delivered consistently impressive results with their own product offerings, and with Apache CouchDB.

fuddle 13y ago

Any ideas on the valuation of Cloudant?

mark_l_watson 13y ago

I have been a very long term customer of Cloudant (low usage, low cost customer) and I have always appreciated their tech. Especially good of them to open source BigCouch. I doubt IBM buying them will change much of their business for customers.

tzm 13y ago

Congrats team Cloudant!