We recently asked the MariaDB community a simple question:
Where do you run MariaDB most in production?
The responses give a useful snapshot of how MariaDB is deployed today across our community:
The big takeaway: MariaDB remains strongly infrastructure-aware
The clearest signal from this poll is that MariaDB is still most commonly run in environments where users want a high degree of control over the underlying infrastructure.
The top two clearly defined deployment models, on-prem VMs and bare metal, account for the largest share of visible responses. That tells us something important: for many MariaDB users, database deployment is still closely tied to performance predictability, operational control, and infrastructure ownership.
This is not especially surprising. MariaDB is widely used in environments where teams care deeply about:
- minimizing operational surprises
- performance tuning
- storage behavior
- replication topology
- upgrade control
- security and compliance requirements
For those use cases, on-premises environments and self-managed infrastructure continue to make a lot of sense.
On-prem VMs are the dominant visible category
At 38%, on-prem VMs are the largest category in the poll by a considerable margin.
That result suggests many organizations want the flexibility and manageability of virtualization without giving up control of where and how MariaDB runs. Virtual machines remain a practical middle ground: they simplify provisioning and operational consistency, while still fitting into existing data center, private cloud, or enterprise infrastructure models.
This aligns well with the kinds of production requirements many MariaDB users have. Databases are not just another stateless service. They are often among the most carefully managed parts of the stack, and VMs remain a familiar, stable way to run them.
But of course, for old experienced DBAs like me, …
Bare metal still matters
One of the most notable results is that bare metal remains a major deployment choice at 18%.
That is a strong signal that a meaningful part of the MariaDB community still prioritizes direct access to hardware and the operational simplicity that can come from avoiding extra layers of abstraction. Bare metal tends to appeal in environments where teams want:
- maximum performance consistency
- tight control over I/O behavior
- predictable latency
- simplified capacity planning for critical systems
For database workloads in particular, those considerations remain highly relevant. Even as infrastructure abstractions have expanded, bare metal clearly remains far from obsolete.
Kubernetes is growing, but it is not the default
Kubernetes reached 11% in the poll, which is actually quite interesting. It clearly means that running MariaDB on Kubernetes is no longer some exotic setup reserved for early adopters. It’s real, it’s happening, and for some teams it’s already the right platform…
But let’s be honest: it’s also not the default choice for most MariaDB users. (hopefully!)
What this poll tells me is that Kubernetes is gaining ground, but traditional environments still dominate for MariaDB in production. VMs are still very strong, bare metal is still there, and that should not surprise anyone. Databases are stateful systems, and stateful systems always force you to think a bit more carefully before jumping onto the latest platform trend.
Of course, running MariaDB on Kubernetes is much more realistic today than it was a few years ago. The ecosystem has improved a lot. But success still depends on how confident you are with things like:
- persistent storage orchestration
- backup and restore workflows
- failover behavior
- upgrade procedures
- observability and debugging
- operational maturity of the surrounding platform
So while Kubernetes is part of the MariaDB production picture today, the results suggest it is still one option among several, rather than the universal destination.
And that’s perfectly fine… I must admit, I’m even happy with that as I’m not (yet?) the best fan of running databases in K8s.
For teams moving in that direction, though, it makes a lot of sense to rely on a solid operator instead of reinventing everything yourself. This is exactly where something like the MariaDB Enterprise Kubernetes Operator becomes very relevant.
Cloud VMs and managed services are small in this snapshot
The visible poll results show cloud VMs at 1% and managed service at 1%.
Those numbers are strikingly low, though they should be interpreted carefully. A community poll reflects the audience that chose to respond, not the entire global database market. MariaDB has a strong base of users who self-manage, run in private environments, or operate under constraints that differ from cloud-first organizations.
That said, managed MariaDB services are definitely part of the landscape, and some of them are very popular. Just think about services like MariaDB Cloud, Amazon RDS for MariaDB, or Alibaba Cloud ApsaraDB RDS for MariaDB. So this result probably says more about the respondents’ profile than about the overall popularity of managed MariaDB offerings.
Others are less relevant, as unfortunately, they contain a lot of spam.
Conclusion
MariaDB is clearly thriving in self-managed, production-first environments. The poll shows that while newer platforms like Kubernetes are part of the story, traditional infrastructure — especially on-prem VMs and bare metal — still defines a large part of the MariaDB operational landscape for the moment.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the poll. These community snapshots help us better understand how MariaDB is being used in the real world and where to focus future content.
Keep telling us more by participating in the next poll: “Which observability tools do you use for MariaDB?“