MariaDB collaborates with SADA to enable customers to move to the cloud

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/ AT A GLANCE

MariaDB Collaborates with Sada - Empowering customers to transition to the cloud. Learn about the seamless migration journey here.

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INDUSTRY

Software & Technology

SAVED

30% on Kubernetes & Compute

CLOSED

Deals through SADA’s SaaS Alliance

What do a 5G network provider, a baseball statistics provider, and an online cruise travel agency all have in common? They are businesses running their mission-critical applications on MariaDB SkySQL as their fully managed cloud database service. SkySQL is a push-button solution that takes care of everything from provisioning the cloud infrastructure to installing and deploying the database, configuring the database for production environments, and automating failover. 

SkySQL, developed by MariaDB Corporation, scales out a single database to hundreds of nodes with ease using distributed SQL and deploys modern data warehouses for ad hoc analytics on massive data sets to meet enterprise demands–all while saving customers up to 90% of their legacy database costs. 

“The cloud changes how companies operate and do business–unlocking new opportunities that were never possible before,” says Bryan Alsdorf, Director of IT at MariaDB Corporation. “Bringing SkySQL to the market was the next evolution of our business and allowed us to offer new value to our customers. We are grateful for the collaboration with SADA and Google Cloud, which were instrumental in the success of our development and launch of SkySQL globally.” 

Business challenge

MariaDB’s cloud vision took a two-pronged approach: build a highly scalable cloud database service for customers while also upgrading the company’s own infrastructure to the cloud.

Back in the day, most of MariaDB’s IT infrastructure was hosted in data centers. As part of running their infrastructure on-premises, MariaDB spent a lot of time managing and maintaining it. Whether changing tape drives to make redundant backups or standing up a rack of servers to deploy a new application, running IT infrastructure on-premises required hands-on administration. Running on-premises also necessitated a capex model, which proved to be less cost-effective over time with rising equipment and facility expenses.

Additionally, MariaDB needed to get their technology value proposition in front of customers who were already taking advantage of cloud solutions. For maximum impact, they felt they would be best positioned if they were able to quickly develop products, service customers, and run their business in the cloud.

Solution

MariaDB sought a developer- and administrator-friendly infrastructure solution provider. They chose Google Cloud. As they experienced the ease with which they could host SkySQL on Google Cloud, they migrated more of their internal systems to Google Cloud.

“When we started hosting SkySQL on Google Cloud, we also started moving a lot of our general infrastructure over from either on-premises or second-tier hosts,” says Alsdorf. “Google Cloud is great; so as director of IT, all of the infrastructure that I oversee is on Google Cloud. The operations are great and it’s very developer-friendly.”

Comfortably situated on Google Cloud and benefiting from their smoother opex model, MariaDB sought help to optimize usage and savings. Multiple-time Google Cloud Sales Partner of the Year SADA was engaged for their expertise in committed use discounts (CUDs) to deepen the value MariaDB was receiving. 

SADA really helped guide us through the whole process, understanding how those committed use discounts work and how we could leverage them. That was a great area where SADA was able to step in and explain the process because we have so many projects in Google Cloud and it’s so easy to segment work.

Bryan Alsdorf | Director of IT at MariaDB Corporation

SADA’s SaaS Alliance Program

Back on the business side, MariaDB joined SADA’s SaaS Alliance Program, a go-to-market acceleration program for ISVs, SaaS, and digital natives, to help identify, jointly develop, and successfully close new SkySQL customer opportunities. Working closely with the SADA Alliance team, MariaDB was able to show SADA’s business and technical teams the value of SkySQL along with the customer pain points that can be solved. MariaDB and SADA aligned on targeted accounts and in turn, SADA account teams were able to make warm introductions where SkySQL was the right fit while continuing to support MariaDB through each step in the sales process.

To help enable multi-channel marketing, SADA invited MariaDB to participate in several virtual events including Ground School, the ISV Partner Panel, and SADA’s five-star-rated podcast, Cloud N Clear. SADA also supported MariaDB’s go-to-market actions with press outreach, events, and co-branded collateral.

Additionally, MariaDB became a Signature Sponsor for SADA’s inaugural live customer event SADA IMPACT, a cloud transformation summit, with sessions now available on demand. MariaDB was also featured at the Google Next ’22 on the Road with SADA event in New York City.

SADA is an incredible collaborator to work with, especially on the alliances side. We have received a considerable amount of go-to-market support from SADA account and organizational leaders. In fact, when we finished account mapping, SADA uncovered a dozen co-selling opportunities that MariaDB had been executing against and made a half-dozen warm introductions to those customers. And we’ve also closed opportunities together from our participation in Ground School. Everyone on the team has been really supportive, open to introducing new opportunities, and have been very collaborative throughout the entire sales journey.

Andrew McIntyre | Senior Alliances Manager at MariaDB Corporation

Results

As a result of working with Google Cloud and SADA, MariaDB has migrated the vast majority of their infrastructure to Google Cloud, benefiting from significant cost savings and ease of operations in the process. In addition, SkySQL is proving to be a key database for Google Cloud customers that need scalability and high availability.

“By modernizing our infrastructure on Google Cloud, it makes running IT operations much easier and we’ve also achieved substantial cost savings on top of that,” says Alsdorf. “SADA worked with MariaDB on committed use discounts that cut our costs by up to 30% per month, specifically for Kubernetes and our underlying Compute usage.”

Added Alsdorf, “We are able to make informed business decisions because we can easily see and understand what is happening in our environment. We now have a cloud platform that’s efficient and faster. Both opex and capex were massively reduced by moving everything we did from on-prem into Google Cloud, and that savings will continue on an ongoing basis. We always work within our budget and scale as we go.”

“Partnering with SADA and Google Cloud on our infrastructure and SkySQL development have been amazing,” says Alsdorf. “We’re able to leverage features like Google Kubernetes Engine for a fully managed environment to automatically deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications on Google Cloud.” 

When it comes to their go-to-market efforts with SADA, MariaDB has made a big impression through in-person events and through targeted account introductions, both of which MariaDB has access to thanks to SADA’s SaaS Alliance Program. During the SADA IMPACT summit, MariaDB had a chance to meet face to face with over 500+ of SADA’s customers and partners. In particular, SADA’s Alliance Account Manager has helped MariaDB close new opportunities within the gaming industry, allowing these customers to adapt and scale their databases along with the seasonality of the industry.

“We’ve seen a significant positive impact from being part of SADA’s video and audio productions like Ground School and Cloud N Clear and events such as IMPACT,” says McIntyre. “Not only have we seen a high number of direct customer impressions but also extensive media exposure. SADA’s videos and events have been really beneficial because we’re able to repurpose them for other engagements to show the true value of our partnership with SADA, MariaDB’s investment in the alliance, and our commitment to our joint go-to-market strategy in application modernization, and cloud modernization solutions.”

Overall, by working with Google Cloud and SADA, MariaDB was able to bring SkySQL to the next level and:

  • Complete migration of the vast majority of their infrastructure from on-prem to the cloud
  • Save up to 30% on costs for Kubernetes and Compute
  • Discover many new customer opportunities

MariaDB Corporation is a new generation cloud database company whose products are used by companies big and small, reaching more than a billion users through Linux distributions and downloaded over one billion times. 

It was very reassuring to have SADA walk us through Google Cloud’s committed use discounts knowing that they have done this before with hundreds of customers. SADA was critical to helping us with our cloud spend and the options to understand and manage our costs.

— Bryan Alsdorf | Director of IT at MariaDB

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