MariaDB is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) created as a fork of MySQL in 2009 by the original MySQL developers. It remains MySQL-compatible while offering enhanced performance, additional storage engines (InnoDB, ColumnStore, Aria), modern features like temporal tables and native JSON support, and a commitment to staying fully open-source under GPL/LGPL. MariaDB is widely adopted by enterprises and powers major platforms including Wikipedia, Google, and Red Hat, making it a leading choice for both OLTP and analytical workloads in cloud-native and on-premises environments.