Outgrowing MariaDB Community?
MariaDB Community Edition is a solid foundation for production workloads. But as your database infrastructure scales, you will encounter limits: manual failover during outages, no intelligent query routing, and complex Kubernetes deployments without operator support. MariaDB Enterprise closes these gaps.
VSHN is an authorized MariaDB reseller in Switzerland. You get the Enterprise license, and if needed, fully managed operations from a team with proven experience running MariaDB in production on Swiss cloud infrastructure.
Signs you need Enterprise
- Manual failover: You handle node failures by hand, with downtime measured in minutes or hours
- No query routing: All reads and writes hit the primary node, with no automatic read/write splitting
- Audit requirements beyond query logging: Community's audit plugin records queries, but your auditors want audit templates assigned per user and timestamps in milliseconds with timezone, which Enterprise Audit adds
- Kubernetes complexity: Deploying Galera Cluster on Kubernetes requires custom scripts and manual topology management
- Security requirements: You need dynamic data masking or query firewalling that Community does not include
Community vs Enterprise
| Capability | Community | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| Core database engine | MariaDB Server | MariaDB Enterprise Server (hardened, production-grade) |
| High availability | Galera Cluster (manual management) | Galera Cluster + MaxScale (automated failover, health checks) |
| Query routing | Not included | MaxScale: automatic read/write splitting, load balancing |
| Data streaming | Manual replication setup | MaxScale CDC: real-time change data capture to Kafka, Hadoop |
| Security | Roles, audit plugin (server_audit), TDE |
Enterprise Audit (JSON audit templates per user, millisecond timestamps), HashiCorp Vault key management, MaxScale data masking and query firewall |
| Kubernetes | Manual deployment | Enterprise Kubernetes Operator (Red Hat OpenShift Certified) |
| Backup tooling | Community tools | MariaDB Enterprise Backup (hot, non-blocking, compressed) |
| Support | Community forums | 24/7 enterprise support from MariaDB engineers |
| Hardening | Community defaults | Preconfigured for production (remote root and anonymous access blocked), STIG compliance |
MaxScale: intelligent database proxy
MaxScale sits between your application and your MariaDB cluster. It handles what you would otherwise build and maintain yourself:
- Read/write splitting: Queries route automatically to the appropriate node. Reads distribute across replicas, writes go to the primary.
- Automatic failover: When a node fails, MaxScale promotes a replica and redirects traffic. No manual intervention, no application changes.
- Connection pooling and load balancing: Adaptive routing based on node health, replication lag, and query load.
- Change data capture: Stream database changes in real time to downstream systems (Kafka, Hadoop, S3) without polling.
- Query firewall: Define allowed query patterns or let MaxScale learn them automatically. Block anomalous queries before they reach the database.
- Dynamic data masking: Mask sensitive columns (credit card numbers, personal data) for specific users or applications without changing your schema.
Kubernetes Operator
The MariaDB Enterprise Kubernetes Operator is Red Hat OpenShift Certified and available on OperatorHub. It replaces manual Kubernetes deployment scripts with a declarative approach:
- Define your entire MariaDB topology (Galera Cluster + MaxScale) in a single YAML manifest
- Rolling upgrades with zero application downtime
- Automated backup scheduling and restore
- Security policy enforcement (TLS, authentication) as part of the deployment spec
For teams running on APPUiO (VSHN's Swiss Kubernetes platform) or any OpenShift cluster, the Operator integrates directly with existing cluster management.
How VSHN helps
As your reseller: VSHN is an authorized MariaDB reseller. You purchase your Enterprise license through us, with Swiss invoicing in CHF, a local point of contact, and assistance navigating the license tiers.
With proven operations experience: VSHN has operated MariaDB in production for Swiss organizations including banks, insurance companies, and SaaS providers. If you run your own infrastructure but want guidance on Galera Cluster topology, MaxScale configuration, or migration planning, our database engineers can advise.
As your managed operations provider: If you prefer to hand off database operations entirely, VSHN manages your MariaDB Enterprise instances on Cloudscale, Exoscale, or your on-premises infrastructure. This includes 24/7 monitoring, automated backups, Galera Cluster management, and up to 99.99% SLA.
Next steps
Start with a free estate review. We go through a written checklist with you: which MariaDB versions run where and when each reaches end of life, what is reachable from outside, and what is under a support contract. There is no commitment at this stage.
Request the estate review and choose "MariaDB estate review" in the form. If the answers point to Enterprise, we size the subscription with you, counted per vCPU across the database nodes. If Community covers it, you stay on Community.