Introduction to Databricks and Neon
Databricks Inc. is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Neon Inc., a startup that offers a commercial version of the open-source PostgreSQL database. According to sources cited by Tech publication Upstarts Media, the acquisition could be worth over $1 billion.
What is Neon Inc.?
Neon Inc. is a San Francisco-based company that has raised over $130 million in funding from prominent investors, including Microsoft Corp’s M12 fund. Its PostgreSQL distribution features a serverless architecture, which eliminates the need for customers to manage underlying infrastructure. This means that Neon automatically adds or removes hardware resources as workload requirements change, allowing for more efficient use of resources.
Key Features of Neon’s PostgreSQL
Neon’s PostgreSQL implementation has several key features that make it attractive to customers. One of its flagship features is the ability to provision storage capacity separately from processing power, which helps avoid unnecessary hardware spending. Additionally, Neon’s connection pooling feature maintains a collection of standby connections that can be quickly assigned to applications, reducing the need to expend hardware resources on creating new connections. The company also provides a cybersecurity tool that allows companies to regulate user access to data down to individual rows, and administrators can roll back a database to an earlier version in case of user error or a ransomware attack.
Why is Databricks Interested in Neon?
Databricks’ interest in Neon may be related to the fact that the database is well-suited for artificial intelligence (AI) use cases. Neon can store vectors, the mathematical structure used by AI models to hold information. It can also provision new database instances in just one second, which is useful for AI coding assistants. This fast provisioning enables coding assistants to launch databases quickly, resulting in better prompt response times.
Databricks’ History of Acquisitions
Databricks has made several startup acquisitions over the past two years to bolster its AI capabilities. Last month, the company acquired Fennel AI Inc., a platform for creating data pipelines that supply AI applications with data. Databricks has also acquired AI dataset management specialist Lilac AI Inc. and MosaicML Inc., a large language model developer, in a deal reportedly worth $1.3 billion.
Conclusion
The potential acquisition of Neon Inc. by Databricks Inc. highlights the growing importance of AI and database technology in the industry. With its serverless architecture and AI-friendly features, Neon’s PostgreSQL distribution could be a valuable addition to Databricks’ portfolio. As the company continues to expand its AI capabilities through strategic acquisitions, it will be interesting to see how this deal plays out and what it means for the future of database technology and AI applications.
