Amazon acquires DuckLabs, team behind DuckDB
What's the story
Amazon has announced its decision to acquire DuckLabs, the company behind DuckDB. The open-source database has gained popularity among developers for its ability to analyze large data sets without the expense and markup of a conventional data warehouse setup. The acquisition will see all employees of DuckLabs, including co-founders and creators of DuckDB Hannes Muhleisen and Mark Raasveldt, join Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Operational continuity
DuckDB will remain open source
Despite the acquisition, DuckLabs will continue its operations in Amsterdam. The company will keep developing DuckDB and other related projects.
However, it's worth noting that Amazon isn't acquiring the DuckDB open-source project itself. Under the MIT license, DuckDB will remain free and open source under the supervision of the DuckDB Foundation.
Other projects like DuckLake and Quack will also stay open source as per DuckLabs's commitment.
Strategic alignment
Amazon's strategy to transform S3
The acquisition fits into Amazon's larger strategy of transforming S3, its flagship storage service, into a platform where customers can analyze data instead of just storing it.
The move comes as the data industry is moving toward keeping information in open formats on cloud storage for direct use rather than loading it into a separate warehouse.
Growth trajectory
DuckDB's journey so far
Founded over five years ago, DuckDB has grown from strength to strength. The company rejected venture capital funding and stayed owned by its founders and employees.
It has now grown to a team of over 30 in Amsterdam, self-funding through support and feature-development contracts.
DuckLabs also revealed that the DuckDB Foundation will form a technical advisory board, allowing leading technology members to have more influence on the project's direction.