Two of the teams behind building and advancing the most widely-used open-source database engines are now one after EnterpriseDB on Thursday acquired Altinity.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
EnterpriseDB's proprietary platform is built on PostsgreSQL and the vendor is one of the main contributors to the PostgreSQL project. Altinity, meanwhile, provides a platform built on ClickHouse and is an active contributor to the ClickHouse project.
By acquiring Altinity, EnterpriseDB brings the two database engines together so its EDB Postgres AI platform can be used as a unified system for managing transactional and real-time analytical data spread across separate systems, a movereflective of a growing demand for real-time data management to inform AI and analytics applications.
Following the transaction, Altinity's engineers are now part of EnterpriseDB, enabling EnterpriseDB to support and contribute to both the PostreSQL and ClickHouse projects while advancing EnterpriseDB's Postgres AI platform.
Near-term product development plans include developing a shared Apache Iceberg catalog and consistent access controls across currently separate PostgreSQL and ClickHouse environments.
Devin Pratt, an analyst at IDC, noted that before the acquisition, EnterpriseDB customers had to use databases from other providers for their analytical data workloads. Given that IDC research shows that enterprise buyers want to simplify their data management systems by reducing the number of products and vendors they use, the acquisition of Altinity signals a move toward meeting buyer demand.
"EnterpriseDB can now cover both the operational and analytical sides of the estate from one vendor," Pratt said.
EnterpriseDB competitors such as AWS, Google Cloud, Databricks, Snowflake and independent PostgreSQL providers are also bringing transactional and analytical workloads together, he continued.
However, by focusing on data sovereignty and enabling customers to deploy in on premises, multi-cloud and hybrid environments, EnterpriseDB somewhat distinguishes itself from its peers. Acquiring Altinity, which similarly enables deployments across myriad environments, reinforces EnterpriseDB's emphasis on data sovereignty and user choice.
"Altinity brings EnterpriseDB in line on analytics and sharpens its edge on control," Pratt said.
Unifying engines to power AI
Nancy Hensley, EnterpriseDB's chief product officer, noted that many of the vendor's customers, including large enterprises and government entities, want to build data and AI estates that make all their data available -- in real time -- for agents and human users to call on.
Data spread across disparate systems has been a hindrance to building agents and other AI tools. By bringing capabilities built on PostgreSQL and ClickHouse together in one platform, EnterpriseDB can provide a unified multi-model architecture for customers to inform data and AI initiatives.
"The data has to be in one architecture, and in this case, an open source one, so it was inevitable that the teams behind the two of the most popular open-source databases -- Postgres and ClickHouse software -- would come together," Hensley told TechTarget.
EnterpriseDB, which already provided a multi-model database platform before acquiring Altinity, first added support for ClickHouse earlier this year. The acquisition builds on that initial support, and makes EnterpriseDB as the largest contributor to PostrgreSQL and second-largest contributor to ClickHouse.
"Holding the number one and number two positions across the two leading open-source databases is a remarkable position to be in," Hensley said.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of bringing EnterpriseDB and Altinity together is the expansion of EDB Postgres AI's multi-model capabilities, she continued.
"In a world where AI and agentic workforces will dominate, your agents and your sovereignty depend on transactional and real-time engines working together in the same architecture, with no pipelines to manage," Hensley said. "That's what we’re building."
The acquisition better enables the company to support the combined operational and analytic requirements of agentic AI. Although PostgreSQL can be used to address both transactional and data warehousing workloads, the ClickHouse database is … designed to deliver second query latency at high concurrency, both of which are key characteristics of agentic workloads.
Matt Aslett
Analyst, ISG
ClickHouse Inc. -- which is the leading contributor to the ClickHouse open-source project -- launched managed PostgreSQL capabilities this year to, like EnterpriseDB, unify ClickHouse and PostgreSQL capabilities.
"The [Altinity] acquisition can also be viewed in the context of ClickHouse Inc.'s launch of ClickHouse Managed Postgres earlier this year, [which] brought ClickHouse Inc. into direct competition with EnterpriseDB," Matt Aslett, an analyst at ISG, told TechTarget. "Altinity is a direct competitor to ClickHouse Inc.'s portfolio of software, services and support for the ClickHouse database."
Beyond competition, the acquisition of Altinity advances EnterpriseDB's platform as a source for AI, he continued.
"The acquisition better enables the company to support the combined operational and analytic requirements of agentic AI," Aslett said. "Although PostgreSQL can be used to address both transactional and data warehousing workloads, the ClickHouse database is a real-time database designed to deliver second query latency at high concurrency, both of which are key characteristics of agentic workloads."
In addition, like Pratt, he noted that EnterpriseDB's acquisition of Altinity is significant for EnterpriseDB customers because it expands EnterpriseDB's nascent ClickHouse capabilities and emphasis on sovereign AI.
"EnterpriseDB already offers EDB Postgres AI for ClickHouse, but acquiring Altinity takes that to a new level … as well as [adds] differentiating software and managed services accessible in the cloud and on premises that further expand EnterpriseDB's sovereign AI capabilities," Aslett said.
Building a base for agents
EnterpriseDB's aim is to turn EDB Postgres AI into a unified, sovereign platform for agentic AI, according to the vendor.
Pratt noted that acquiring Altinity accelerates that transition, calling it a meaningful step. But it doesn't complete the evolution. EnterpriseDB still needs to integrate Altinity's enterprise ClickHouse capabilities -- expected before the start of 2027 -- and build both a shared Apache Iceberg catalog and access controls across PostgreSQL and ClickHouse.
Once those initiatives are complete, the PostgreSQL and ClickHouse engines will become unified, and EDB Postrgres AI will be more of a fully realized platform for agentic AI.
"Altinity adds the analytics engine, [but] integrating it is the real test," Pratt said.
Aslett similarly noted that substantial work on integrating Altinity needs to be done before EnterpriseDB can turn EDB Postgres AI a unified, sovereign platform for AI.
"There will be considerable engineering work to be completed before the company can deliver on that promise," Aslett said. "In the interim, the acquisition better enables EnterpriseDB to support the operational and analytic data processing requirements of agentic AI with two separate environments."
Eric Avidon is a senior reporter for Informa TechTarget and a journalist with more than three decades of experience. He covers analytics and data management.
