At Percona, we believe that an open world is a better world. Our mission has always been to empower organizations with secure, scalable, and reliable open source database solutions without locking them into expensive proprietary ecosystems. Today, we’re excited to share another step forward in this journey: Percona Server for MongoDB now supports OpenBao for data-at-rest encryption key management.
Why OpenBao?
When HashiCorp changed Vault’s licensing two years ago, from the Mozilla Public License (MPL) v2.0 to a non-open-source Business Source License (BSL) v1.1, the open source community responded with OpenBao, a fully open, community-driven fork governed under the Linux Foundation’s LF Edge initiative. OpenBao continues the mission of providing a free and secure solution for managing secrets, certificates, and encryption keys.
For MongoDB administrators, this is critical: databases often hold the most sensitive information in an organization, and strong encryption practices are essential for compliance, security, and peace of mind. By integrating OpenBao with Percona Server for MongoDB, we’re ensuring that DBAs and developers have a fully open source way to manage encryption keys at scale.
What this means for you
With the new OpenBao integration in Percona Server for MongoDB, you can:
- Encrypt data at rest – Protect sensitive information stored in your MongoDB instances with robust, industry-standard encryption.
- Centralize key management – Use OpenBao as the single source of truth for key lifecycle management.
- Enable automatic key rotation – Reduce risks by easily rotating encryption keys on a schedule or on demand.
- Stay open source, stay free – Leverage a fully open solution with no license restrictions.
Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to set up and manage data-at-rest encryption in MongoDB without needing to worry about hidden costs or vendor lock-in. Moreover, if you’re already encrypting data at rest but manage your local encryption key on your own, this is a call to action to use OpenBao with ease!
Percona’s commitment to open source
This announcement reflects our ongoing belief that databases should be secure, performant, and accessible to everyone. We’re proud to provide the community with practical tools to deploy enterprise-grade security features in MongoDB while staying true to open source values.
Get started: Percona Server for MongoDB with OpenBao
Ready to try it out? Check out the Percona documentation to learn how to configure Percona Server for MongoDB with OpenBao for encryption key management. OpenBao is supported starting with the already released Percona Server for MongoDB 7.0.24-13 and the upcoming Percona Server for MongoDB 8.0.14-5.
We’re excited to see what you’ll build with this new capability. With OpenBao and Percona Server for MongoDB, you now have the easiest, free, and open way to secure your data with confidence.
About the Author
Radoslaw SzulgoRadoslaw is a Senior Product Manager at Percona and responsible for driving Percona Software for MongoDB. He has more than 15 years of experience in building distributed applications as a product manager, leader, and software engineer. Radek is an Agile product development enthusiast and fan of personal development. Outside of work, he's an amateur volleyball player.
