mysql

MySQL getting too big for its corporate britches?

For anyone interested in seeing just how different and game-changing open source can be, there's really no need to look beyond MySQL, the open-source database leader. Jeremy Zawodny, formerly of Yahoo, and now of Craigslist, takes a hard look at the changing face of MySQL, reaching some surprising conclusions about MySQL in the process:

Nowadays MySQL has a much slower release cycle than it used to. It's still available in "commercial" and free ("community") releases. There's still a company behind it--a much larger one in fact. But one that also has a vested … Read more

Sun executive puts a brave face on insubordinate rant

MySQL's Michael ("Monty") Widenius cann be a bit of a loose cannon, as I've written here before and as revealed in his recent excoriation of MySQL's 5.1 release, telling would-be adopters to be "very cautious" about using it.

Sun SVP of Database Products, Marten Mickos, attempts to put a happy face on Monty's indiscretion but I imagine his private feelings involve some choice Finnish profanities with Monty's name after them. At least, that's what I'd be saying (if I spoke Finnish).

Transparency, as Mickos notes, is a hallmark … Read more

Gartner targets $1 billion in open-source database revenue by 2013

For those who wonder if Sun Microsystems overpaid for MySQL, consider the recent findings by Gartner, and encapsulated in its report "The Growing Maturity of Open-Source Database Management Systems":

Open-source database use grew 50 percent in 2008. Gartner found that 73 percent of enterprises it surveyed are using open-source databases, up from 49 percent the previous year; Open-source database revenue grew 42.4 percent in 2008; and The open-source database market will top $1 billion by 2013.

As Zack Urlocker points out on his blog, and as Gartner also finds, "express" editions from Oracle and others … Read more

Sun's Schwartz signals a shift to Open Storage...and profit

Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz has been doomed to serve as the resident Thanksgiving roast for the media, but apparently he didn't get the memo. Instead he's trumpeting the dramatic growth of Sun's MySQL and Open Storage initiatives:

Like Wikipedia, most of the planet's largest web sites (just look at the top 100) are built atop Sun's MySQL database. Which is why we've just introduced a line of systems platform designed specifically to run MySQL - at up to 3x the performance of whitebox alternatives (after all, it's far easier marketing to audiences that … Read more

MySQL charts its way to paying customers with Query Analyzer

MySQL has long built a great database. It's increasingly also building a great database business.

MySQL made two big announcements on Wednesday, one product-related (the final release of MySQL 5.1) and the second licensing model-related (improvements to the subscription-only MySQL Enterprise Monitor service with Query Analyzer). Of the two, I believe the latter is the more important as it helps Sun to monetize the research and development investments it has been making in the MySQL product.

The product announcement is that MySQL 5.1 will ship on or before December 6. Sun announced MySQL 5.1 back in April, but now it's ready for release. MySQL 5.1 is not important because it adds transactions capabilities (MySQL has had this functionality for years), but rather because it augments MySQL's sweet spot: industry-beating scalability and performance.

Better than Oracle? Absolutely, as Sun senior vice president of Database Products, Marten Mickos, told me in a phone interview:

Performance and total cost of ownership are the two areas where we beat Oracle. Having said that, we aren't adding new functionality in order to compete with Oracle, but rather to serve our existing market and new markets.

Which markets? As the enterprise moves applications to the Web, that's MySQL wins. That's where we want to be relevant. That's why in 5.1 we have new features in replication and partitioning, for example. Both are targeted at scaling out, meaning that we're delivering enhanced throughput more than syntactical features.

As Google, Facebook, and other Web companies know, MySQL is the gold standard of Web-savvy databases. The more enterprises move to the Web, the better for Sun's MySQL business.

But only if Sun actually knows how to make money with its open-source assets like the MySQL database. This is why the addition of MySQL's Query Analyzer tool to the MySQL Enterprise Monitor service is so important. The Query Analyzer helps database administrators to quickly resolve problems in their database queries, thereby boosting performance. … Read more

What if Sun fails with open source?

The more I read about Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz betting the company's future open source, the more I grow concerned that if it fails, Sun will be the harbinger of sorrow for the rest of the open source world.

Sun is arguably the most important open source vendor right now as Schwartz has bet the company on software instead of its traditional hardware revenue. (I'm not discounting Red Hat's place, just that RH has been on the open source path since the beginning.)

Sun's strategy is audacious and reshapes the way that everything is done, but it's not clear that the strategy is correct or that Sun's existing corporate structure can execute on this enormous change. Staff reductions and other cost-cutting measures have little if anything to do with the switch to open source. Those measures would need to be taken regardless as the company is simply too bloated and expensive to run even if it generates a decent amount of cash.

Sun's approach--at least the way I'm reading it from Jonathan Schwartz's statements, is about making the software totally free and trying to sell support and hardware. This clearly diminishes the value of the products and doesn't offer a mechanism that encourages people to pay for software. It also puts an unnecessary burden on the notion of open source--such that if Sun is wrong, everyone else will look wrong too. But, Sun's approach is quite different from most (all?) of the open source start-ups and also different from Red Hat, the obvious leader.

The most successful open source companies have figured out ways to encourage people to pay for software. This usually includes a commercial license that removes the open source license restrictions. Typically, we see the base "open core" product plus some type of value added feature or service set that can't be obtained for the community version. The idea of simply selling support fell by the wayside for most companies at least one year ago. … Read more

Hard work, talent, and a whiff of luck: Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers'

I'm not a fan of Malcolm Gladwell's earlier books, Blink and Tipping Point. His "insights" tend to be obvious and provide little predictive power (i.e., knowing his theory does nothing to help you plot your way to success). Indeed, the most they provide is rear-view mirror insight into why something might have happened.

Gladwell's new book, Outliers, is no different, but I find it more interesting, perhaps in part because it helps to explain a complex subject in pithy prose. As The Wall Street Journal details in an engaging book review, Outliers identifies the necessary traits of successful people, only two of which do people have any control over. The last? Well, it's a matter of happenstance:

...[S]uccess seems to stem as much from context as from personal attributes. Intrinsic ability appears to be a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for exceptional achievement. It also helps to be born at the right time--the 1830s for titans of industry, the 1950s for computer whizzes--and in the right home environment, with the right cultural heritage. But the elements of success are not all matters of happenstance and talent: Hard work (practicing a skill for at least 10,000 hours) is essential, too, as even Mozart discovered....… Read more

Sun clarifies its open-source model

Simon Phipps, chief open source officer at Sun Microsystems, has clarified the company's business model for open-source software, including its MySQL database, suggesting that Sun's revenue hinges on delivering, "for a fee, the means to create value between deploy and scale, for those who need it."

In other words, Sun provides services, hardware, and software over and above the base level of value provided by its open-source software. Though Simon doesn't explicitly state this--he notes that "each software team at Sun interprets this model in a slightly different way"--such additional value may well include proprietary software, … Read more

Sun expands its open storage line, hopes for accelerated growth

Despite a recent write-down on the value of its StorageTek acquisition, Sun is banking on updates to its open-storage initiative to drive revenue growth for the company, according to The Wall Street Journal. Is it putting too much faith in storage, and open-source storage at that, to repair its fortunes?

For me, it's not a question of whether Sun's open-storage business is viable, but whether it's big enough to save Sun in time. In other words, as the Journal points out, open storage is growing at a torrid pace, but will it be enough?

Sun's open … Read more