Sam Varghese
Friday, 05 January 2007 04:29
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
The open source firm MySQL, which makes the database of the same name, is slowly acquiring new options as far as storage engines go, doubtless with on eye on the fact that bigger rivals are circling.
Last year when database giant Oracle acquired the small Finnish software maker Innobase, which provides the InnobasDB storage engine used by MySQL, there were doubts that the open source firm would be able to continue to negotiate favourable terms for renewing its Innobase licence.
Even though it has managed to do that - MySQL chief executive Marten Mickos says Oracle has "played very nicely with
InnoDB. They fix bugs and develop the product just as before" - MySQL is now hedging its bets by providing other options. The fact that Oracle late last year started selling GNU/Linux on its own may well have accelerated the development of options.
Says Mickos: "...with our Pluggable Storage Engine Architecture we provide choice for customers who may not want to use InnoDB or who may have slightly different needs. Solid was first with the SolidDB engine for MySQL. Our own Falcon project will soon be out as alpha. We have announced two new storage engine partnerships: Nitro Security and Infobright. And Paul McCullagh developed the PrimeBase XT transactional storage engine all on his own."
The Falcon project alpha code was released a few days ago. For Mickos, "...this shows the self-healing effect on open source. Take something away, or raise the possibility that something might be taken away, and the ecosystem and the community creates alternatives and replacements."
The release of the Falcon code is a step in a different direction for MySQL which did not exactly endear itself to the FOSS community last year by negotiating a tie-up with Microsoft to become a part of Redmond's Visual Studio Industry Partner Program and moving to delay production of binaries of its enterprise product for Debian GNU/Linux. In 2005, MySQL made a boob of sorts when it cut a deal with the SCO Group to support its database on some versions of SCO's Unixware operating system.
