Percona & HexaCluster team up on database migrations

Percona has partnered with HexaCluster to help organisations migrate from proprietary databases to open-source alternatives, with a focus on PostgreSQL, MySQL and MariaDB.

The partnership combines Percona's migration assessment and production support services with HexaCluster's migration software for projects involving mixed source and target database environments. It is aimed at enterprises seeking to leave commercial database platforms that have become costly to renew or difficult to exit.

Migration projects will be delivered through Percona Expert Consulting and Services. Engagements will begin with a Percona-led assessment to define the scope of the migration and confirm the source-to-target route before data is moved.

The assessment is intended to identify required changes and reduce disruption to business processes during the transition. Percona will lead planning and support databases in production after go-live, while HexaCluster will provide software for more complex heterogeneous migrations.

Cost pressure

The announcement comes as many organisations review long-running database contracts and weigh the operational risks of moving away from established systems. Enterprises often find proprietary platforms become more expensive at renewal, but remain cautious about migration because of the perceived risk of changing core data infrastructure without specialist support.

The partnership is intended to give customers a clearer route away from lock-in by combining assessment, planning and automated migration with support for open-source databases once deployed. The target platforms named in the agreement are PostgreSQL, MySQL and MariaDB Community.

HexaCluster specialises in PostgreSQL migration and related services. Its tools are designed for complex workloads and support moves from proprietary and legacy engines to open-source targets.

Its portfolio includes software for migration assessment, schema conversion, data migration and live replication during cutover. HexaCluster supports both heterogeneous migrations, such as Oracle or SQL Server to PostgreSQL, and same-engine moves across a range of database systems.

Division of roles

Percona will act as the lead partner for customers undertaking the migration process. Its role includes scoping the project, carrying out the initial assessment, planning the move and supporting the database environment in production after the transition.

HexaCluster's role centres on software used in more technically demanding migrations involving multiple source systems or destination environments. Together, the companies aim to provide both advisory support and automation for organisations managing large or mixed database estates.

Louis Hood, Director of Global Partnerships and Channel at Percona, outlined the company's rationale for the arrangement.

"This partnership expands our portfolio to help organizations address steep proprietary database renewal costs and migration risks. Percona now simplifies the transition by leading assessment, planning, and automated heterogeneous migrations through a single team from evaluation to go-live. The result is lower-risk cost reduction without new vendor lock-in," said Hood.

Open source focus

Percona has long positioned itself around open-source database software, support and services. Its broader aim is to give organisations more control over their data infrastructure without dependence on a single software vendor.

It supports database systems including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Valkey and Redis, and says it has spent two decades working with large database deployments. In this partnership, that production support is being linked with HexaCluster's migration software to offer a more complete path from assessment to production.

HexaCluster said its tools were built to modernise workloads moving onto PostgreSQL. The company was founded by engineers behind Ora2Pg, an open-source Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration tool, and says it has also contributed to dozens of PostgreSQL tools and extensions.

Avinash Vallarapu, Chief Executive Officer at HexaCluster, said the agreement would widen access to that work.

"We've spent years building Migration and Modernization tools that move complex workloads onto PostgreSQL," said Vallarapu.

"Partnering with Percona puts that work in front of the organizations that need it most, backed by a team that supports these databases in production every day," he added.