MonetDB is a open-source database system for high-performance 
applications in data mining, OLAP, GIS, XML Query, text and 
multimedia retrieval. MonetDB often achieves a significant speed 
improvement for SQL  and XQuery over other open-source systems. Use 
the product strands as your roadmap for exploration. The MonetDB 
system is distributed under the liberal open-source license. It 
allows you to modify and extend it in any way you like and 
subsequently redistribute it in open and close source products. 
Bug-fixes and functional enhancements to the MonetDB code base are 
highly appreciated.

When your database grows into millions of records spread over many 
tables and business intelligence/ science becomes the prevalent 
application domain, a column-store database management system is 
called for. Unlike traditional row-stores, such as MySQL and 
PostgreSQL, a column-store provides a modern and scalable solution 
without calling for substantial hardware investments.

MonetDB  pioneered column-store solutions for high-performance data 
warehouses for business intelligence and eScience since 1993. It 
achieves its goal by innovations at all layers of a DBMS, e.g. a 
storage model based on vertical fragmentation, a modern CPU-tuned 
query execution architecture, automatic and adaptive indices, 
run-time query optimization, and a modular software architecture. It 
is based on the SQL 2003 standard with full support for foreign 
keys, joins, views, triggers, and stored procedures. It is fully 
ACID compliant and supports a rich spectrum of programming 
interfaces (JDBC, ODBC, PHP, Python, RoR, C/C++, Perl).

MonetDB is distributed both as a source tarball, packages for 
installation, and binary installers on a variety of platforms. The 
latest release has been tested on Linux (Fedora, RedHat Enterprise 
Linux, Debian, Ubuntu), Gentoo, Mac OS, SUN Solaris, Open Solaris, 
Windows XP, Windows Sever 2003, Windows Vista. A regular release 
schedule ensures the latest functional improvements to reach the 
community quickly.

MonetDB is the focus of database research pushing the technology 
envelop in many areas. Its three-level software stack, comprised of 
SQL front-end, tactical-optimizers, and columnar abstract-machine 
kernel, provide a flexible environment to customize it many 
different ways. A rich collection of linked-in libraries provide 
functionality for temporal data types, math routine, strings, and 
URLs. In-depth information on the technical innovations in the 
design and implementation of MonetDB can be found in our science 
library. 

Last, but not least, the MonetDB system is distributed under the 
liberal open-source license. It allows you to modify and extend it 
in any way you like and subsequently redistribute it in open and 
close source products. Bug-fixes and functional enhancements to the 
MonetDB code base are highly appreciated.