Introducing MariaDB Exa: Uniting Transactions and Analytics for Near Real-Time Insight
In every organization, there’s a widening gap between the data that powers daily operations and the insights that drive strategic action. Transactional systems keep businesses running, but the data they generate often takes hours (or even days) to reach analytics platforms. By the time it does, it’s stale. Decisions lag behind events.
As Chief Product Officer at Exasol, I’ve seen how this disconnect limits agility. It’s no longer acceptable for analytics to trail the business.
That’s why we joined forces with MariaDB to create MariaDB Exa, a unified solution that bridges operational and analytical workloads without compromise.
The Partnership Vision
MariaDB is trusted worldwide for mission-critical OLTP workloads. Exasol is purpose-built for high-speed analytics and AI. Together, we eliminate the traditional trade-off between transactional reliability and analytical performance.
Our teams designed MariaDB Exa to erase the barriers between live operational data and analytics. By combining MariaDB’s robust transactional platform with Exasol’s massively parallel, in-memory Analytics Engine, we enable customers to analyze operational data in near real time; no complex ETL, no replication lag, no waiting.
This collaboration isn’t about stitching two systems together; it’s about simplifying the data stack. Organizations can now run analytical and transactional queries concurrently, with predictable speed and reliability, on the same live data.
Breaking the ETL Barrier
Legacy data pipelines rely on extract-transform-load (ETL) processes that are slow, brittle, and expensive to maintain. Each transformation step introduces latency, operational overhead, and architectural complexity.
MariaDB Exa replaces these fragile chains with direct, live access. Using Exasol’s Virtual Schema framework, analytical queries reach into MariaDB without data movement. Insights are generated the moment data is created.
The outcome is measurable: faster time to insight, reduced infrastructure sprawl, and a dramatic drop in total cost of ownership. It’s a cleaner, leaner approach to analytics architecture, built for speed and simplicity.
Unified Performance at Scale
Performance isn’t just about speed; it’s about consistency under load. Enterprises need to serve thousands of concurrent users, whether they’re running lightweight dashboards or heavy analytical models.
Exasol’s massively parallel processing (MPP) engine distributes workloads across all available cores, maintaining sub-second response times even under high concurrency. MariaDB continues to deliver best-in-class transactional throughput while Exasol executes complex analytical queries in parallel. Neither workload slows the other down.
This is the essence of MariaDB Exa: two engines working in harmony, ensuring that operational reliability and analytical acceleration coexist without compromise.
Powering AI and ML on Live Data
AI and machine learning depend on data freshness. Training and inference on outdated datasets can lead to missed patterns and wrong predictions.
With MariaDB Exa, models can now be trained and deployed directly against live operational data. Exasol’s integrated AI/ML execution framework makes it possible to score transactions, detect anomalies, and optimize operations in real time, without waiting for nightly ETL runs.
The result is a feedback loop between your business operations and your AI models. As data flows in, insights flow back instantly, driving smarter automation and faster decision-making.
Deployment Without Limits
Every enterprise has its own architectural strategy. MariaDB Exa was built to respect that.
You can deploy on-premises, in the cloud, or as part of a hybrid environment across AWS, Azure, or private data centers. The joint solution integrates seamlessly into existing ecosystems and supports the governance, sovereignty, and compliance standards organizations require.
Our goal was flexibility without trade-offs. Whether you’re scaling analytics for a global enterprise or modernizing a single application, MariaDB Exa adapts to your needs, not the other way around.
Proven Performance and Value
Independent verification matters. McKnight Consulting Group benchmarked Exasol against Snowflake and confirmed what our customers already experience: Exasol delivers faster query performance and a superior price/performance ratio.
That same performance advantage now powers MariaDB Exa. Organizations can achieve enterprise-grade analytics capability, without the enterprise-level cost and complexity.
The Future of Unified Data
The days of separating transactions and analytics are numbered. Businesses need insights in the same moment data is generated. MariaDB Exa represents a decisive step toward that future: one system, two strengths, zero latency.
For data leaders, this means a simplified architecture, faster innovation, and greater freedom to focus on what matters: building intelligent, adaptive systems that react to the world in real time.
If you’re ready to see MariaDB Exa in action, visit MariaDB’s official page to explore the joint solution and request a demo. Experience how live operational data and high-speed analytics unite: no pipelines, no waiting, just insight.