Community Recap: Percona.Connect London 2025, Building the Future of Open Source Together

Percona.Connect London 2025 brought the open-source database community together for a half-day of learning and collaboration. The event focused on providing practical, technical insights for DBAs, DevOps engineers, and developers. The main takeaway was clear: Stability, Openness, and Automation are essential for modern, large-scale data infrastructure.

Top Discussions & Key Takeaways

1. The Rise of Valkey: A Truly Open Caching Alternative

Martin Visser, Valkey Technical Lead, explained the changes to the Redis license, the community needs a trusted, open-source replacement. Valkey was highlighted as the leading solution.

• Valkey was started by former Redis contributors quickly after Redis removed its open source license in 2024.
• It is a true open-source project governed under the Linux Foundation.
• It offers enhancements like better memory efficiency, performance, and scalability.
• In a recent Percona survey of 200 DBAs, Valkey was the most preferred alternative to Redis.

2. Running PostgreSQL in a Cloud Native context

Takis Stathopoulos, Enterprise Architect, presented on running PostgreSQL in a Cloud Native context, explaining how Kubernetes Operators simplify complex deployments.

• Cloud Native vs. Cloud First: Cloud Native (Kubernetes) offers Portability and No vendor lock-in, allowing you to run the database consistently across different clouds and on-premise infrastructure.
• Percona Operator for PostgreSQL: This tool automates crucial operations like setting up high availability (using Patroni), backups (using pgBackrest), and scaling.
• When to use Cloud Native: It’s ideal for large, microservice-based applications and teams prioritizing portability and avoiding vendor lock-in.

3. Native PostgreSQL TDE is Here: Securing Data Simply

Alastair Turner, Postgres Community Advocate, introduced the new Native Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) for PostgreSQL.

4. The Future of MySQL: Vector Search & Binlog Server

Dennis Kittrell, MySQL Product Manager, discussed two key features planned for MySQL that address major operational and feature challenges.

• MySQL Binlog Server MVP: This component aims to solve the problem of quick disaster recovery by acting as a stable, reliable replication source. It enables Precise Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR) using simple time or GTID coordinates.
• Native Vector Support MVP: This feature allows users to eliminate the complexity of using a separate vector database. You can store, index, and search vector embeddings directly in MySQL, allowing you to combine vector searches with standard business logic in a single, transactional query

Our Community Focus

A common theme from the use cases was that while open source adoption is high, operational teams often lack the proper support and visibility.

Percona’s goal is to support the community by providing:

• Stability when under heavy load or during maintenance.
• Faster Troubleshooting with better monitoring and observability.
• Safer Deployments through expert configuration and security support.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in London for a dynamic event. We hope the insights gained will help you with your open source database deployments.

The conversations continue in the Percona Community! You can reach out directly to the speakers:

• Martin Visser (Valkey Technical Lead) LinkedIn
• Dennis Kittrell (MySQL Product Manager) LinkedIn
• Alastair Turner (Postgres Community Advocate) LinkedIn
• Takis Stathopoulos (Enterprise Architect) LinkedIn
• Andre Pons (Enterprise Sales Manager) LinkedIn

Join the Percona Community Conversation!

• Percona Forum
• Percona on LinkedIn