Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
Another year passes. I was hoping to write more articles instead of just these end-of-the-year screeds, but I almost died in the spring semester, and it sucked up my time. Nevertheless, I will go through what I think are the major trends and happenings in databases over the last year. There were many exciting and unprecedented developments in the world of databases. Vibe coding entered the vernacular. The Wu-Tang Clan announced their time capsule project. Rather than raising one massive funding round this year instead of going public, Databricks raised two massive rounds instead of going public. Meanwhile, other events were expected and less surprising. Redis Ltd. switched their license back one year after their rugpull (I called this shot last year). SurrealDB reported great benchmark…
