What is it?
Sun's agreementto purchaseMySQL ABwill consolidate commercial use of the open source
originated database, although MySQL was already doing pretty well
on its own.
Over 40% of software developers interviewed by
Evans Data Corporation in
2006 said they used it (though not necessarily as their main
database platform). It's the favourite of
Web 2.0 enterprises such as Google, YouTube, Facebook and
Wikipedia, but with a strong presence too among telecos, whose
requirement for 99.9-recurring uptime demonstrates that MySQL is
far more than a free download for hobbyists, non-profits and
businesses too small to afford a serious commercial database.
But such a small number of users, and modest applications in
large organisations, still make up the bulk of MySQL licences. As
CEO Marten Mickos says, "Other databases have many features that we
don't. We are still a complement to them, although we of course do
compete for individual projects where other databases are overkill
or we have a more compelling licence."
According to Gartner, "MySQL will be enhanced and aided by other
Sun products, such as HPC
(Lustre), high-performance file systems (ZFS), Suncluster, Java,
Xen virtualization (xVM), identity management and DTrace's
diagnostics." This has already happened to PostgreSQL, which Sun
began shipping in 2006.
As well as supporting the
Lamp (Linux, Apache, MySQL/PostgreSQL, Perl/PHP/Python) stack,
Sun offers its own, based on Solaris and Java. However, according
to MySQL AB, around 40% of downloads are for Windows.
Where did it originate?
MySQL was first released in 1995. The Windows version followed
in 1998.
What's it for?
MySQL uses different storage engines to manage data according to
the application - data warehousing or transaction processing, for
example. The most popular, InnoDB from InnoBase, was taken over by
Oracle, who continue to supply it.
MySQL also offers "native" storage engines: MyISAM, the
"default", has low overheads but does not support transactions and
is generally replaced by InnoDB. The new transactional storage
engine, Falcon, is in pre-production testing.
MySQL has APIs C and C++, Java, Perl and Python, and is
particularly popular with PHP and Ruby users. The MyODBC interface
supports ASP and ColdFusion, among others. MySQL AB says, "MySQL
delivers less complicated solutions that complement existing
corporate database such as Oracle, IBM DB2, and Microsoft SQL
Server."
MySQL AB plays the field: it's a Microsoft Visual Studio
Industry Partner, contributes to the Eclipse Data Tools Platform
for Java, and works with Zend on the Eclipse PHP IDE project.
MySQL 5.1 introduced partitioning and shared-nothing clustering,
with replication between clustered databases.
What makes it special?
Low licensing costs, and reduced cost of ownership.
How difficult is it to master?
Developers need to be familiar with SQL. There's a four-day
MySQL for beginners course for both developers and DBAs
Where is it used?
MySQL is particularly strong in Telecoms, with BT,
Cable&Wireless, Nokia and Virgin Mobile among its users. Media
customers include the BBC, Reuters, AP and Bloomberg.
What systems does it run on?
Linux, most Unix - including Solaris, SunOS, Windows, Mac OSX
and many legacy operating systems.
What's coming up?
MySQL 6.0 is in pre-production testing.
Rates of pay
£25,000 to £40,000 for developers with other Lamp skills.
£30,000-plus for DBAs.
Training
Take a course with MySQL AB, at normal industry rates (around
£1,500), or teach yourself from the many free sites.
Learnmysql
Mysql tutorial
Developertutorials