On January 3, 2023, Progress, a provider of application development and infrastructure software, announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MarkLogic, whose lead product is a multi-model NoSQL DBMS that can perform complex search and query across multiple types of data including documents, relationships and metadata.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, MarkLogic delivers an enterprise data platform that helps its customers derive value from complex data. Along with its NoSQL database, MarkLogic provides strong semantic metadata management capabilities. The MarkLogic NoSQL DBMS can handle data such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), extensible markup language (XML), and Resource Description Framework natively, as well as text and geospatial data. It also offers enterprise features such as atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability (ACID) transactions, automated failover, and strong security. Gartner recognizes MarkLogic in its Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems and receives high marks in Gartner’s Peer Insights reviews for its data integration, metadata handling, and analytic capabilities.
Progress is expected to acquire MarkLogic for $355 million. The acquisition is currently expected to close in early 2023, subject to obtaining regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions set forth in the definitive agreement.
Progress is already a player in the DBMS market with its well-established DataDirect connectivity solutions and its OpenEdge data and application management platform, as well as its managed services offering, OpenEdge DataBase Services. The addition of MarkLogic will enable Progress to support the needs of large enterprise customers aiming to natively manipulate, store, and manage non-relational data, such as graphs, triples and other unstructured data.
The move makes sense for Progress as it seeks to improve the data management capabilities of its platform for its large enterprise customers. “The key to the success of any business is its ability to tackle complex data challenges through informed decision-making. To do this effectively, users must turn data into actionable insights—and that is what MarkLogic delivers,” said Yogesh Gupta, CEO, Progress. When the deal closes, Progress has announced its intention to add the MarkLogic products to the Progress Application and Data Platform business unit, led by Executive Vice President, General Manager, John Ainsworth.
MarkLogic is a powerful, NoSQL database that is generally well-regarded by its users. It is viewed by some users as somewhat complex to learn, but that probably has much to do with each respective user’s background and history with non-relational database systems. Although MarkLogic customers tend to view the DBMS positively, citing it as a powerful data platform, some have raised concerns about its cost. It will be interesting to see how Progress intends to license MarkLogic to its enterprise customers. MarkLogic offered a developer license that is free to download and use and Progress would be wise to continue that to better enable prospects to evaluate and learn MarkLogic. Otherwise, the MarkLogic DBMS has been commercially licensed and sold directly by the vendor, with support costs depending on the deployment.
The bottom line is that this is an interesting first (database-related) acquisition of 2023. Enterprise users considering MarkLogic should be happy that a company used to dealing with large enterprises (Progress) has taken on the technology.