MaxDB is an enterprise DBMS which offers ease-of-use and low cost of ownership combined with outstanding performance. All the same, it includes all the features and fitnesses required for enterprise usage. While features are indeed a precondition for an enterprise-class DBMS, clearly features alone will not do the job. Performance is definitely the paramount DBMS requirement but other characteristics such as scalability, high availability, reliability, and supportability are required nevertheless. Low administration costs indicate that no permanent attendance is required during the hours, days, and weeks of DBMS operation, and that planned downtime is avoided. No planned downtime means "online everything" which is a prerequisite for adaptive computing and self-management.

The history of MaxDB goes back to SAP DB, SAP AG's DBMS, i.e., MaxDB is a re-branded and enhanced version of SAP DB. For many years, MaxDB has been used for small, medium, and large installations of the mySAP Business Suite and other demanding SQL applications requiring an enterprise-class DBMS with regard to the number of users, the transactional workload, and the size of the database. MaxDB therefore complements the MySQL database server in the MySQL product range.

Today, MaxDB is used in about 3,500 SAP customer installations worldwide. Moreover, the majority of all DBMS installations on Unix and Linux within SAP’s IT department rely on MaxDB. MaxDB is tuned towards heavy-duty online transaction processing (OLTP) with several thousand users and database sizes ranging from several hundred GB to multiple TB.