mysql

Cloud Vendors A to Z (courtesy of ESM Blog)

John M. Willis has put together a matrix of the major players in the cloud right now including some of the companies that enable and others that are just offerings.

It's an interesting exercise to figure out how all these parts fit together and considering that the SaaS providers don't have a reason to disclose what's going on behind the scenes I bet there is a ton of other software that is not represented here.

Just knowing what I know about Mule's adoption in SaaS companies I can tell you that we are enabling several businesses … Read more

Between two consenting corporations...

Is proprietary software really that bad? Or is it a fair contract between consulting corporations? The answer is "It depends" and "Not really." Both depend on the strictures a vendor puts in place to inhibit its ability to lock a customer into its software. In MySQL's case, MySQL has no intention to lock customers in, as far as I can tell. It just wants to convince customers to pay so that it can prove its worth.

MySQL is contemplating introducing extensions to its core database that are only available to paid subscribers, for compelling reasons. This is not, as has been suggested, in and of itself proprietary. Red Hat does the same by providing an initial gate to its RHEL code which only a paid subscriber can access unless they get it from an existing customer of Red Hat's.

The question is not the open-source legitimacy of an otherwise open-source binary wrapped in a closed contract. This is simply a way of preventing services (like the Red Hat-provided compilation of that binary from source code) from free redistribution.

The question is one of redistribution of binaries.

There are actually ways to do this that let MySQL balance open source with closed permissions. I've drafted language for a license grant below that I think does this. It's not open source, but might be a way to balance its need for more cash growth with continued emphasis on community growth.… Read more

Random thoughts on the MySQL furor

Watching the MySQL uproar unfold brings to mind an array of random thoughts:

Microsoft really should acquire an open-source company. It would get credit for opening up, even if it closed off some parts of whatever project it acquired. Sun...? It's getting lambasted for no logical reason at all. It's not as if MySQL wasn't actively considering tweaks to its model before Sun acquired them, just as all open-source companies do. No one has settled on the exact right model yet. While Microsoft and other "proprietary companies" move toward opening up, it would appear that there is some movement among "open-source companies" to close off. Maybe we'll meet in the middle?… Read more

MySQL adoption: Deep and wide

I love this anecdote from Jonathan Schwartz's blog. As is demonstrated again and again, enterprises have no idea just how awash in open-source software they are...until they ask.

The CIO responded categorically with "we don't run MySQL, we run [name withheld to protect the proprietary]." The CISO said, "We can't just let developers download software off the net, you know, we've got regulation and security to worry about." The CTO smiled. Everyone else appeared to be sitting on their hands. I was going to leave it at that. Thanks for the business.

Until a (diplomatically) assertive Sun sales rep piped up, "Um... no, I connected with a buddy of mine over at MySQL, and had him check - you've downloaded MySQL more than 1,300 times in the last twelve months."… Read more

MySQL and "commercial extensions:" Core, complements, and semantics

MySQL has placed itself in the middle of a rising furor over its allegedly diminished commitment to open source. To be fair, it has only itself to blame.

It all started with a disgruntled ex-MySQL employee, Jeremy Cole. Cole declared that MySQL's sky was falling because it was to be releasing certain parts of the next version of its database as closed-source software. Marten Mickos responded that he had misunderstood (when, in fact, he had understood very well), it went to Slashdot (where it was of course misconstrued even further), and we're left with a somewhat tepid defense by Marten in the comments section of Slashdot to the self-addressed question, "Why is MySQL now producing some proprietary software?":

The reason is that we have an ambition not only to produce FOSS [free and open-source] code, but also to be a profitable business that can exist for a long time. Each time we make more money, we hire more developers to develop GPL code.… Read more

Kickfire's MySQL appliance blows the doors (and price tags) off proprietary databases

For those proprietary database vendors who have been hoping and praying that their myths about MySQL would persist ("For low-end applications, "Not high performance," etc.) , Kickfire just announced a MySQL-based database appliance that should wipe the smirks off Oracle and IBM.

If you get nothing else from this post, remember this: Big performance. Little price.

Kickfire, Inc. today announced the first MySQL database appliance that brings the high-performance capabilities of large commercial database systems to the MySQL market. The company...has built its appliance by developing an ultra-modern database kernel and a revolutionary SQL chip that packs the power of 10s of high-end CPUs. The result is a small form-factor MySQL appliance that delivers the high performance of large systems but with dramatically lower hardware, power, and cooling costs. Separately today, Kickfire and Sun Microsystems announced record-breaking TPC-H price/performance benchmark results that demonstrate the performance efficiency and price/performance leadership of Kickfire's design.

How high of performance?… Read more

Study Finds "Free Open Source Software Is Costing Vendors $60 Billion"

I am trying to get my hands on this new report from the Standish Group that says that open source is decimating the traditional software market.

Open Source software is raising havoc throughout the software market. It is the ultimate in disruptive technology, and while to it is only 6% of estimated trillion dollars IT budgeted annually, it represents a real loss of $60 billion in annual revenues to software companies," said Jim Johnson, Chairman, The Standish Group International, Boston, MA

If the $60 billion is true (and I would assume based on Standish's five years of research … Read more

Why would you think that SaaS companies won't pay for open source?

When Gartner analyst Robert Desisto wrote this week on the idea that SaaS companies are going to adopt tons of open source I was thrilled. And yet some of the blogosphere seemed to think that meant they wouldn't pay for support and services offered by open source vendors.

Nine out of ten software-as-a-service providers will rely on open source software by 2010 to save money, but the cost savings likely won't be passed onto customers, Gartner says in a new research note.

From an open source vendor perspective, I can tell you that the interest we are seeing from SaaS companies is tremendous. In my case Mule offers the integration/abstraction layer for SaaS to bridge internal applications and data structures (and really if a SaaS architecture is not service-oriented the vendors are going to have serious problems) and Galaxy provides the governance and lifecycle to manage the services. (Disclosure: I am CEO of MuleSource)

But that's just one example--If you consider that Adobe is using Alfresco as part of its online PDF product or that MySQL powers a great many SaaS applications and that both of these companies make money as open source providers I think it shows there is a great opportunity. … Read more

MySQL chief to users: Don't expect big disruptions post-Sun

Marten Mickos joined MySQL as CEO in 2001. In January, he presided over the sale of the company to Sun Microsystems. Since the acquisition, he has served as the senior vice president of its database group. I caught up with Mickos after his keynote speech at the MySQL User Conference & Expo taking place this week in Santa Clara, Calif.

Q: What's next for Sun as far as its open-source quest? Mickos: I think Sun has embarked on many things with (the) open-sourcing of Java and Solaris. Now is the time to fine-tune those models and settle down. When … Read more