Aerospike Database was first known as Citrusleaf 2.0. In August 2012, the company rebranded both the company and software name to Aerospike. The name Aerospike is derived from a type of rocket nozzle that is able to maintain its output efficiency over a large range of altitudes, and is intended to refer to the software's ability to scale up. In 2012, Aerospike acquired AlchemyDB, and integrated the two databases' functions, including the addition of a relational data management system. On June 24, 2014, Aerospike was opensourced under the AGPL 3.0 license for the Aerospike database server and the Apache License Version 2.0 for its Aerospike client software development kit. In February 2015, Aerospike named John Dillon, previously of Salesforce.com, as its new CEO.