Press Release

NoSQL Companies CouchOne and Membase Merge to Form Couchbase

Complementary technologies combine to create most comprehensive data management solution for scalable web and mobile applications

Mountain View and Oakland, Calif. – February 8, 2011 – Membase and CouchOne today announced they have joined forces to create Couchbase, the first and only provider of a comprehensive, end-to-end family of NoSQL database products. The merger yields an unmatched lineup of data management capabilities built with Apache CouchDB document database technology, memcached distributed caching technology and the Membase data flow and cluster management system. The new Couchbase product family, also introduced today, combines these capabilities creating solutions that scale from large clusters down to mobile phones and tablets.

News Highlights

  • CouchOne, founded by CouchDB creator Damien Katz, provides database solutions powered by the Apache CouchDB database project. Known for its ease of use and reliability, CouchDB is the most widely deployed open source document database. As an open source project, it enjoys a vibrant development community and more than 10 million desktop deployments worldwide, as well as large-scale implementations at the BBC, Apple, and CERN.
  • Membase, the company behind Membase open source technology, provides a distributed key-value database with integrated memcached caching technology. Membase enables dynamic cluster elasticity and sustained low-latency, high-throughput data operations. Its core technology powers 18 of the top 20 largest websites; and few web applications now enter production without it. Organizations including Zynga, AOL and ShareThis use Membase to dramatically lower data management costs while improving the scalability and performance of their demanding interactive web applications.
  • With the merger of CouchOne and Membase, and the resulting combination of CouchDB, memcached and Membase technologies, Couchbase becomes the safest and most durable document database, with a recovery-oriented architecture that offers unprecedented reliability and availability for data, whether stored on a single server or spread across hundreds. Couchbase technologies represent the most comprehensive data management solution for building scalable web and mobile applications, with indexing, flexible querying and ease of use that developers love; and elastic clustering, robust storage management and consistently high performance relied on by system administrators and operators.
  • The Couchbase product family, scheduled for release over the coming months, includes offerings optimized for the data center, desktop and mobile device. In addition to a consistent developer API across products, the Couchbase family will feature automatic end-to-end synchronization – supporting cross-datacenter replication and mobile-to-cloud database synchronization. The Couchbase family will include:
    • Elastic Couchbase [Membase Server]: Membase Server, to be renamed Elastic Couchbase in a forthcoming release, will combine Membase, memcached and CouchDB technology to provide high-performance caching, elastic clustering and document database features. It can effortlessly scale from a single server to a hundred-node cluster supporting an application with millions of concurrent users.
    • Couchbase Single Server: A lightweight, non-clustered Couchbase edition appropriate for developers and smaller Couchbase production deployments.
    • Mobile Couchbase: Initially focused on the iOS platform, Mobile Couchbase is a database embeddable into native iOS applications. Mobile Couchbase provides data management services to applications whether offline or on, and can be configured to automatically synchronize with other Couchbase instances when network connectivity is established.
    • Hosted Couchbase: Hosted Couchbase is a quick and easy way to get started with Couchbase, and provides a ready-made cloud sync point for applications built using Mobile Couchbase.
  • Membase CEO Bob Wiederhold, becomes CEO of the combined company, with CouchOne CEO Damien Katz serving as Couchbase CTO. Couchbase headquarters is in Mountain View, Calif., with sales and development offices worldwide. The merged company will serve the mission-critical demands of developers and operations teams with proven, production-ready software backed by world-class support and services.

Supporting Quotes

  • “The merger of CouchOne and Membase creates a new powerhouse in NoSQL database technology. The union of our technologies is extremely exciting because it amplifies our respective strengths and fills our gaps. Further, the combined technical team, which will be led by Damien Katz, is nothing short of a NoSQL dream team, and positions us to more rapidly innovate, harden, and deliver high-quality data management solutions that will accelerate our customers’ success.” — Bob Wiederhold, CEO, Membase
  • “To me, the most exciting thing about the Couchbase merger is that we are able to more quickly give users of both technologies the features they’ve been clamoring for. CouchDB users will acquire the high performance, high scale, simple-fast-elastic capabilities of Membase, while Membase users will acquire CouchDB’s indexing features (map/reduce view, Lucene, R-Tree GeoCouch), replication, reliability and a clear path to mobile integration. This is clearly a win-win-win for us and for our customers and users.” — Damien Katz, co-founder and CEO of CouchOne and creator of CouchDB
  • “I’ve long held that the consolidation of NoSQL vendors was just a matter of time. I’m not surprised that the emerging winner in this process is Membase. We evaluated the gamut of NoSQL database offerings before ultimately selecting Membase at Zynga, but CouchDB was also a finalist. At that point we wished we could have combined the best of these systems, and that is exactly what is going to happen now. We’re delighted with this merger.” — Cadir Lee, CTO, Zynga
  • “Membase and CouchOne were already two of the leading NoSQL database providers, and the combination of Membase’s high performance clustering and caching technology with CouchDB’s document data model appears to be a good fit. The two companies are also complementary in terms of their approach to developers and operational adoption, and Couchbase should be able to hit the ground running with their combined technologies, teams and development plans.” — Matt Aslett, Senior Analyst, The 451 Group
  • “If you can live without joins, document data models make a lot of sense. For most of human history, the principal models for storing information have been document-oriented; today, many developers think in terms of objects, documents, or both. The Couchbase plan for a document-model DBMS is very interesting, especially in the variety of its scaling and replication capabilities.” — Curt Monash, President of Monash Research and Editor of DBMS 2
  • “It has been a pleasure working with the team at Membase, both in my role as company advisor and in engagements between Cloudera and Membase. Bringing CouchOne and Membase together is a combination of technologies and companies that just makes sense. I definitely support this move and I’m looking forward to working closely with the combined team.” — Mike Olson, CEO, Cloudera
  • “Modern cloud applications require a robust and elastic database solution. The elasticity of Membase married to the robust document data model of CouchDB is a perfect match for these applications. The Couchbase merger strengthens our relationship with the company and enhances the value of the solutions we provide to our shared customers.” — Marten Mickos, CEO, Eucalyptus Systems
  • “We have a multi-faceted relationship with CouchOne – both using and distributing their CouchDB technologies through our popular personal cloud service Ubuntu One. The merger of CouchOne and Membase creates a stronger business partner with increased market presence and capacity for accelerated innovation. We applaud the combination and look forward to working with Couchbase.” — Cristian Parrino, Director of Online Services, Canonical
  • More customer and partner quotes here

About Couchbase

At Couchbase, we believe data is at the heart of the enterprise. We empower developers and architects to build, deploy, and run their most mission-critical applications. Couchbase delivers a high-performance, flexible, and scalable modern database that runs across the data center and any cloud. Many of the world’s largest enterprises rely on Couchbase to power the core applications their businesses depend on. For more information, visit www.couchbase.com.

Media Contact

James Kim

couchbasePR@couchbase.com
Couchbase Communications

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