Continuent is a database infrastructure company best known for its Tungsten products, which help organizations keep MySQL (and related) databases highly available and move data reliably between systems. Its flagship Tungsten Replicator is a high-performance replication engine that can replicate data across different database sources/targets and supports advanced replication topologies beyond native MySQL replication. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Continuent founder, CEO, and Chairman Eero Teerikorpi to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Eero Teerikorpi’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Teerikorpi said:
“I am the founder, CEO and chairman of the board of Continuent, a leading provider of solutions for business-critical applications using MySQL databases, including cluster management, data replication, and application connectivity. I’m a Finnish-American technology entrepreneur best known for my pioneering contributions to open-source database systems, particularly MySQL. Over the span of a four-decade career, I’ve founded seven technology companies and played a pivotal role in advancing high availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR), and geo-distributed clustering for MySQL and MariaDB databases.”
“I began my career in the mid-1980s as a regional product manager at Apple Computer in Finland. Prior to this, in 1983 while still in college, I co-founded PC-Trainers, which quickly became Finland’s leading personal computer training company. My entrepreneurial journey led to the founding of several successful ventures, including Alcom Corporation, a pioneer in networked fax server software later acquired by Esker S.A., where I served as an executive board member. I also established Blue White Ventures, an investment firm focused on helping Scandinavian companies enter the U.S. market.”
“In recognition of my lifelong contributions to technology, I was awarded the Gold Stevie Award in 2024 for Lifetime Achievement in Business Technology. It is an honor to receive this award, as it reflects my enduring commitment to innovation and leadership in open-source software.”
“Outside of my professional pursuits, I’m a passionate sailor and sportsman. In addition, I own and operate NOET Vineyards, a boutique winery producing award-winning, dry-farmed Cabernet Sauvignon.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Teerikorpi shared:
“While open-source technologies were originally born in academic institutions like MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley, Finland became a major force in the movement with innovations like Linux (1991) and the MySQL database (1996). By the early 2000s, the rise of the internet and e-commerce made the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) a critical foundation for web applications.”
“Though it wasn’t yet clear that the web would dominate global business, I foresaw the need for 24/7 availability of these new applications. I also recognized that continuous MySQL database operations were crucial for their success.”
“In 2001, I became CEO of Emic Networks in Finland, where the company introduced Emic m/cluster, the first high-availability clustering solution for MySQL databases. Building on this innovation, I secured significant venture funding in 2004 and moved the company’s operations to the United States, where I established Continuent, Inc. to further develop and expand these technologies.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Teerikorpi reflected:
“One of the most validating moments for Continuent came in 2014 when VMware acquired the company to help develop a DBaaS solution for its vCloud Air business unit. When VMware later pivoted its cloud strategy, I had the opportunity to reacquire Continuent as a self-funded entity. That move enabled the company to continue operating independently—and successfully.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Teerikorpi explained:
“Tungsten Cluster is Continuent’s flagship product: a fully integrated high-availability, disaster recovery and geo-scaling solution for MySQL and MariaDB.”
“Continuent Tungsten provides independence from platforms, vendors, versions, infrastructure, and geographic location through on-premises, hybrid-cloud, and multi-cloud data replication and database clustering solutions for continuous operation of the business and mission-critical MySQL and MariaDB applications.”
“Continuent customers are leading SaaS, e-commerce, financial services, gaming and telco companies who rely on open-source databases and Continuent to cost-effectively safeguard billions of dollars in annual revenue.”
“The Continuent team, based globally, guarantees customer’s application availability through industry-best 24/7/365 Support.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Teerikorpi acknowledged:
“Yes. We’re seeing two conflicting trends:
- Open-source database deployments are becoming more mission-critical and performance-intensive.
- At the same time, the supply of skilled Database Administrators (DBAs) is becoming more limited, with many teams outsourcing DBA tasks across language and skill gaps.
Continuent is addressing this by making our tools smarter: enhancing Tungsten Manager, introducing a Kubernetes Operator for Tungsten, and actively exploring how AI agents can augment or even automate DBA responsibilities.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Teerikorpi noted:
“For over two decades, our core architecture has remained rooted in three pillars: intelligent proxying, advanced replication, and business-rule-driven cluster orchestration. Early clustering used synchronous replication, which promised strong consistency—but struggled with geographic distribution due to replication lag.”
“In 2009, we pivoted to an asynchronous approach based on the CAP theorem (Consistency, Availability, Partition Tolerance). As partition tolerance is a given in distributed systems, we chose to prioritize Consistency over Availability. Tungsten Cluster minimizes risk of data corruption during failover by (very) briefly sacrificing availability.”
“This model is critical in sectors like finance, SaaS, telecom, and e-commerce, where data integrity is non-negotiable.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Teerikorpi cited:
- 2001: Launch of m/cluster, the first MySQL High-Availability solution on the market
- 2004: Introduced Myosotis (the first MySQL proxy), later evolved into Tungsten Connector
- 2009: Released Tungsten Replicator with support for GTIDs and cross-version replication
- 2010: Delivered online schema changes without downtime
- 2012: Introduced geo-distributed Active-Passive and Active-Active cluster topologies and automated Disaster Recovery
- 2014: Acquired by VMware
- 2016: Return to a private, independent, self-funded operation
- 2022 Introduced geo-distributed Dynamic Active-Active and Distributed Data Groups cluster topologies with Tungsten v7
- 2025 Introduction fully automated database cluster deployments with Tungsten Kubernetes Operator as a part of Tungsten v8 release
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Teerikorpi highlighted:
“Adobe’s Marketo has been a Continuent customer since 2009. As Marketo scaled from a $10 million startup to a multibillion-dollar operation, Tungsten Cluster supported its pod-based architecture. Each pod (cluster) serves one or more customers depending on workload, making the solution essentially infinitely scalable.”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? Teerikorpi revealed:
“As a privately held company, we don’t publish financials. However, Continuent is a profitable and steadily growing enterprise. Across our customer base, we safeguard data flows that exceed $25 billion in annual revenue.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Teerikorpi assessed:
“We operate at the intersection of the open-source database and cloud DBaaS markets. The global market for cloud databases and DBaaS was:
- $17.33B in 2023
- $20.16B in 2024
- Projected $91.41B by 2034 (16.32% CAGR)
- Of the 265,881 companies using relational databases:
o MySQL has a 42.16% share (112,092 customers)
o PostgreSQL has 16.91%
o Oracle: 11.16%
o MariaDB: 2.05%”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Teerikorpi affirmed:
“Continuent’s Tungsten Cluster is the only fully integrated, out-of-the-box solution for clustering, replication, proxying, and monitoring MySQL and MariaDB databases—eliminating the need to assemble separate tools and ensuring seamless operation from day one.”
“It is also one of the very few solutions that enables true active/active clustering across multiple, geographically distributed sites, delivering global data distribution with strong consistency and automated conflict resolution.”
“Continuent is also known for its ultra-fast, 24/7 support, with urgent issues typically addressed in under three minutes by senior-level engineers rather than routed through standard support tiers.”
“Additionally, Continuent’s solutions are designed to be deployed within the customer’s own cloud environment, allowing organizations to maintain full control over their infrastructure, security, and compliance. This approach stands in contrast to most DBaaS offerings, which typically require customers to relinquish control to the vendor and can lead to vendor lock-in.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Teerikorpi emphasized:
“Today, Tungsten powers critical operations for leading SaaS, finance, telecom, and e-commerce customers using MySQL and MariaDB. Next, we are expanding to PostgreSQL with new AI-managed capabilities.”
“Unlike traditional DBaaS offerings, our current and new solutions will follow a Bring-Your-Own-Cloud (BYOC) model, where customers retain control of their infrastructure, costs, and compliance.”
BYOC
What is BYOC and why does it matter? Teerikorpi concluded:
Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) enables customers to run third-party SaaS or DBaaS solutions inside their own cloud accounts (AWS, Azure, GCP), rather than relying on a vendor-managed setup.
This model is gaining traction among enterprises with strict compliance, security, or residency requirements. It also allows customers to leverage existing cloud credits and cost controls—avoiding the hidden premiums often baked into managed DBaaS services.
