Why is MongoDB SSPL license dangerous for you?

Reading the FAQ on the SSPL MongoDB license, it seems like there is nothing wrong with changing it, unless you are a "big and cool cloud provider".



However, I hasten to disappoint you: the consequences for you directly will become much more serious and worse than you might think.











MongoDB has always been a “gnarly open source company”. While the world was moving from copyleft licenses (GPL) to liberal licenses (MIT, BSD, Apache), MongoDB chose AGPL for its MongoDB Server Software, an even more limited version of the GPL.



After reading the MongoDB S1 form used to apply for an IPO, you will see that the focus is on the freemium model. It does this by disfiguring the Community Server version rather than supporting the values ​​of the open source community.



In his 2019 interview, MongoDB Dev CEO Ittycheria confirmed that MongoDB Inc. is not going to partner with the open source community to improve MongoDB as they focus on their freemium strategy:

“MongoDB was created by MongoDB. There were no previously existing solutions. We didn't open source for help; we opened it as part of a freemium strategy ”,

- Dev Ittycheria, CEO of MongoDB.



In October 2018 MongoDB changed its license to SSPL (Server Side Public License). This was done unexpectedly and unfriendly to the open source community, where forthcoming license changes are announced in advance, allowing those who, for whatever reason, cannot use the new license, plan and implement the transition to another software.

What is SSPL really, and why might it affect you?

The SSPL license terms require anyone offering MongoDB as a DBaaS to either release the entire surrounding infrastructure under SSPL terms or obtain a commercial license from MongoDB. For cloud providers, the former is impractical because MongoDB licensing directly allows MongoDB Inc. exercise significant price control for end users, which means there is no real competition.



As DBaaS becomes the leading form of database software use, this provider dependency is a major problem!



You might be thinking, "No big deal: MongoDB Atlas isn't that expensive." Indeed, it may be so ... but only for now.



MongoDB is NOT profitable yet, as it posted losses in excess of $ 175 million last year. At the moment MongoDB is actively investing in growth. This means, among other things, keeping prices reasonably low. However, modern global companies must sooner or later become profitable, and in the absence of competition, you will have to pay for it.



It's not just profitability to worry about. The general “winner-take-all” scenario of gaining dominant market share at any cost implies increasing prices as long as possible (and even more!).



In the world of databases, this game was played very successfully a couple of decades ago by Oracle, which saved people from being tied to the hardware of the "blue giant" (IBM). Oracle software was available on a variety of hardware and was initially offered at a reasonable price ... And then it became a bane for CIOs and CFOs around the world.



MongoDB is now playing the same game, only at an accelerated pace. My friend and colleague Matt Yonkovit recently asked, “Is MongoDB the new Oracle?” And I'm pretty sure, at least from this point of view, that it is.



To conclude, SSPL is not something that only affects a handful of cloud vendors that cannot directly compete with MongoDB in the DBaaS space. SSPL impacts all MongoDB users, imposing vendor lock and the risk of excessively high prices in the future.