Dr DBA, a top technology guru at Oracle, has appeared at MySQL's annual conference to sooth concerns over the open-source database's future under Oracle. Ken Jacbos, vice president of product strategy in Oracle's server technologies division, was brought on stage to highlight the history of fraternal collaboration between Oracle …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Posted Wednesday 22nd April 2009 08:12 GMT
if Monty Widenius wanted to maintain control of MySQL he shouldn't have sold out.....
Posted Wednesday 22nd April 2009 08:12 GMT
I've seen many a fine product destroyed (remember Lotus notes all you grey hairs?) as the consequence of a corporate takeover. The usual culprit is "Budget Cuts" at the time of the annual budget cycle. The fine words of "we will continue to support and grow" are forgotten by the nameless accountants when they follow instructions to trim 10% off minor budgets. Suddenly non-profit parts of the organisation are starved of funding and the diligent and knowledgeable workers drift away. None of the "Rising Star" managers in the mainstream company would be associated with products that do not contribute to The Bottomline so the product gets starved of management attention.
Bye bye MySQL it has been nice knowing you, but you are not contributing to my new yacht.
Posted Wednesday 22nd April 2009 09:21 GMT
I believe Oracle understands well the business case for MySQL. They stand to benefit by keeping it healthy and vibrant: LAMP margins may be tiny, but you provide a smooth migration path to Solaris/Oracle at the top end for those that grow big. I'm sure they also understand well that Oracle will not be the beneficiary of any exodus from MySQL's community!
Posted Wednesday 22nd April 2009 12:49 GMT
"if Monty Widenius wanted to maintain control of MySQL he shouldn't have sold out....."
Well, no. But then again he's now substantially richer, can pick and choose from the top MySQL talent, should they depart Oracle, and they can keep developing MySQL technologies knowing that although they won't be able to license the product commercially - it's GPL all the way - with their enhancements to the GPL code base, neither will Oracle. He gets to continue developing a product he sold to someone else, albeit on different terms of business, probably selling support, services, consultancy.
So, yes, Monty will have his cake and eat it, too.
Posted Wednesday 22nd April 2009 13:44 GMT
Hmm, obviously we'll have to wait and see, but at least theoretically I think it _could_ be ok. My reasoning being that:
a) Oracle is at least a (successful) database company*. They understand the "product", they have the experience and technical resources. In the public mind, oracle=database. I'd be more concerned for SPARC, Solaris & Java (in that order). Oracle's not a hardware co, or an OS company (despite desire to have their own complete stack).
b) mySQL & Oracle's DB don't compete with each other. mySQL's popularity for dynamic websites isn't just down to it's price, but because (with the default MyISAM engine) it's optimised for read often, write seldom which works well in this context. Clustering support is nice to have, but I suspect it's mostly used for high-demand web apps. Oracle's db is in a different use space.
Oracle _could_ provide uniform tools, SQL dialect compatiblity, etc. for a clean upgrade path from mySQL (say as an intern department db) to Oracle when the need grows for some big iron.
If it goes pear shaped, well, the source code is there, Monty is still around live n kicking, and there's alway Postgres (which for those of us that program with a db abstraction layer should't be too much work). MySQL 5 is already installed all over the place, and does what it needs to do in 99% of cases.
As the poster says, Stay Calm & Carry On :-)
* Yes I know closed-source, and over-priced, but reasonably technically competent AFAIK.
Posted Wednesday 22nd April 2009 23:43 GMT
MySQL had many owners, and yes, Monty got some well earned money.
This topic is closed for new posts.
Back to the article
Transforming IT culture
Driving Situational Awareness:
Application Performance Management:
Ensuring service assurance in the new normal
