The database market is changing with blinding speed. The space once dominated by Oracle is now contested by dozens of newcomers, all dreaming of creating the next MySQL. This change is accelerated by the Web and the proliferation of mobile devices and apps, which require businesses to store and manipulate increasingly varied types of information.

It can be confusing at the best of times.

Rows and columns

It’s been over 40 years since Edgar Codd first proposed the relational database model, and today this market is estimated to be worth around $20 billion. Most of it used to belong to established, traditional vendors like Oracle and Microsoft.

But the times are changing: according to DB-Engines, in the beginning of 2013, commercial database systems were deployed by 64 percent of the customers. Today, this number has shrunk to 59 percent, with the rest taken over by open source alternatives. Meanwhile, venture capitalists seem particularly inclined to invest their money into new post-relational products.

So what do you know about the database market?

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