Microsoft to strengthen its database story by acquiring Citus Data

Microsoft announces its plans to acquire Citus Data, a startup that specializes in Big Data and Analytics. Citus Data is known for commercializing open-source database software, called PostgreSQL, by building an extension that will allow scaling in line with the requirements of distributed cloud computing.

Citus’ extension essentially turns a PostgreSQL database into a distributed one, making it faster and scalable. This only means that Microsoft will soon be able to offer a version of PostgreSQL that scales more efficiently in response to demand. Microsoft offered PostgreSQL as a managed service on Azure.

“We created Citus to transform PostgreSQL into a distributed database—giving developers game-changing performance improvements and delivering queries that are magnitudes faster than proprietary implementations of Postgres,” said Umur Cubukcu, co-founder and CEO of Citus, in his own blog post. The extension developed by Citus works as both a managed cloud service running on AWS as well as on-premises servers.

“Working together, we will accelerate the delivery of key, enterprise-ready features from Azure to PostgreSQL and enable critical PostgreSQL workloads to run on Azure with confidence,” wrote Rohan Kumar, corporate vice president for Azure Data, in a blog post announcing the deal. A Microsoft spokesperson also noted that “the acquisition is a proof point in the company’s commitment to open source and accelerating Azure PostgreSQL performance and scale.”

The deal, whose terms weren’t disclosed, would only bolster Microsoft’s argument that it supports open-source technologies, particularly in the cloud. Amid competition from Google and Amazon, in the cloud business, Microsoft can use ‘openness’ as a bait to attract new users – including users of the hosted service – to Azure, over time.