Sun buying MySQL is truly a mixed blessing. Sun has the resources to invest to make MySQL a “real” database and knows a lot about what enterprises would want to see in it. On the other hand, Sun has had a less-than-stellar track record with software. Once upon a time, back when I was at Allaire, we celebrated every time Sun bought a competitor. Hopefully, Jonathan Schwartz, who is a software guy at heart, has pushed enough change through the organization to make the acquisition successful. Alternatively, this may be his way of bringing a critical mass of fresh perspective to Sun.
One of the key areas Sun should focus on is DBA outreach. There is a scarcity of DBAs who have solid operational experience with mission-critical MySQL deployments.
More importantly for me, this is a signal there there are startup businesses to be built around open-source DB infrastructure.
I know some of the staff there, and I’m anxious to hear their thoughts on it. I wish them the best of luck as well.
I have been a Sun bigot for 11 years now, and in that time one thing continues to plague Sun – They can’t get out of their own way.
Jonathan is a software guy, however Sun is a hardware company. The software will be used to sell more hardware. Having been a partner with Sun for 8 of the 11 years, that is the way their top resellers are wired as well. They could give a damn about software unless it helps sell more hardware. Enter mySQL.
I can almost guarantee that the mySQL purchase was looked at from the perspective of big databases need big iron to run on. That’s good for Sun, let’s buy the company.
I hope mySQL holds its turf, gets the enterprise features it needs and the support from Sun that it deserves. But at the end of the day, mySQL is software and unless they figure out how it will sell more hardware, it’ll be a billion dollar database toy that runs really well on Sun Hardware.