Why Apache ShardingSphere’s Graduation Marks a New Era for Distributed Databases
Apache ShardingSphere, the open‑source distributed database middleware originally contributed by Dangdang and now backed by the Apache Software Foundation, has graduated to a top‑level Apache project, showcasing its evolution from a simple JDBC sharding driver to a comprehensive ecosystem with JDBC, Proxy, and Sidecar components, adopted by over 120 companies.
Apache ShardingSphere, a distributed database middleware, was announced on April 15, 2020 as graduating to an Apache top‑level project, marking the end of a 17‑month incubation.
ShardingSphere was donated to Apache on November 10, 2018, entered incubation, and on March 28, 2020 received unanimous support to graduate, becoming the first 2020 Apache top‑level project. Apache ShardingSphere is a distributed database middleware originally donated by Dangdang to Apache and further developed by JD Digits, becoming the first Apache top‑level project in 2020.
It consists of three sub‑projects, together forming the “J.P.S” database ecosystem:
ShardingSphere-JDBC – a lightweight Java framework that provides an enhanced JDBC driver, fully compatible with JDBC and various ORM frameworks.
ShardingSphere-Proxy – a database proxy offering MySQL/PostgreSQL protocol support, enabling client‑side access without additional deployment.
ShardingSphere-Sidecar – a Kubernetes‑native sidecar proxy that creates a database mesh for cloud‑native environments.
Highlights of Apache ShardingSphere
Comprehensive distributed database solution with sharding, distributed transactions, elastic migration, and governance capabilities.
Independent SQL parsing engine supporting multiple dialects, usable outside ShardingSphere.
Pluggable micro‑kernel architecture allowing SPI‑based loading and unloading of dialects, protocols, and features.
More than 120 companies, including JD.com, China Telecom, ZTO Express, China Minsheng Bank, and Bilibili, have adopted Apache ShardingSphere.
“We are delighted to see the vibrant growth of the Apache ShardingSphere community, which drives rapid IT architecture development for many enterprises,” said Zheng Hao, Operations Lead at JD Digits.
Milestones of Apache ShardingSphere
2016.01.17 – Sharding‑JDBC first open‑sourced
2016.02.03 – Version 1.0 released
2017.12.04 – Version 2.0 released
2018.05.10 – Sharding‑JDBC renamed to ShardingSphere
2018.05.21 – Sharding‑Proxy first released
2018.10.23 – Version 3.0 released
2018.11.10 – Entered Apache Incubator
2019.03.21 – First Apache release
2019.06.30 – Joined CNCF landscape
2020.01.13 – Version 4.0 released
2020.03.10 – Reached 10,000 GitHub stars
2020.04.16 – Graduated as Apache top‑level project after 523 days of incubation
Availability and Governance
Apache ShardingSphere is released under the Apache License v2.0 and overseen by an active PMC. For downloads, documentation, and contribution details, visit http://shardingsphere.apache.org/ and follow https://twitter.com/ShardingSphere.
About the Apache Incubator
The Apache Incubator is the entry path for projects seeking to become part of the Apache Software Foundation, ensuring legal compliance and community development.
About the Apache Software Foundation (ASF)
The ASF, founded in 1999, oversees over 350 projects and more than 2 billion lines of code, fostering open‑source collaboration across AI, big data, cloud computing, and many other domains.
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Programmer DD
A tinkering programmer and author of "Spring Cloud Microservices in Action"
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