[dba-Tech] Oracle to Buy Sun

Arthur,

FWIW, commentary from SQL Pro Insight magazine:

What Will Oracle Do With MySQL?
Microsoft and SQL Server are the real targets, not IBM.

By Jeffrey Schwartz

While there is no shortage of questions surrounding what Oracle has in
store for Sun Microsystems, perhaps the most intriguing one is what
Oracle will do with MySQL. Will it live or will Oracle, which gains
MySQL as a result of its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun, throw it
under the bus?

There is plenty of reason to believe Oracle would not want to in any
way, shape or form let MySQL cannibalize the licensing revenues Oracle
has enjoyed for so many years from its flagship proprietary database
platform. There's the school of thought that Oracle doesn't walk the
walk when it comes to open source.

"While Oracle has displayed an ability to participate in and benefit
from open source software, I think its expectations and aspirations
for open source software are limited," wrote 451Group analyst Jay
Lyman.

But lest we forget, while Oracle CEO Larry Ellison talks up how
acquiring Sun is a key entre for Oracle to further its assault on IBM,
his real nemesis is Microsoft. While it is unlikely MySQL was a huge
factor (perhaps not even a reason at all) in Oracle's decision to make
its surprise bid, the company's decision to put some emphasis on the
open source database could be an opportunity to go after Microsoft in
a way it could never do with its flagship database.

In fact, that's exactly what MySQL founder Marten Mickos told Forbes
yesterday, arguing they serve two different application types.
"Microsoft's database business is the fastest growing," Mickos told
Forbes. "Oracle can use MySQL to achieve a stronger developer
community."

Forrester analyst Noel Yuhanna agrees. "If Oracle plays its cards
right, this could be a great move, since it continues to struggle
against Microsoft SQL Server especially in the small- to
moderate-sized database market, where Microsoft SQL Server enjoys
dominance," Yuhanna said in an e-mail. "A combination of MySQL and
Oracle DBMS can cover all bases, and put MySQL against Microsoft SQL
Server more competitively. Also, we see that as databases become more
automated (which is already happening), the need for tighter
integration with hardware and bundling will further grow -- therefore
having a database appliance (database machine) will become critical."

While the installed base of MySQL pales in comparison to SQL Server,
Microsoft is well aware of the momentum around it and the open source
database movement, especially for lower-end Web applications. That's
why Microsoft has developed its own PHP Driver for SQL Server and last
month released its PHP on Windows Training Kit, which includes
technical material, best practices and code samples for building PHP
applications that run on Windows, IIS 7 and SQL Server 2008.

"Microsoft is going after those folks in a pretty serious way," said
Andrew Brust, a director of new technology at twenty six New York, and
a Microsoft regional director. "Read what you want into that but it
shows how seriously Microsoft takes MySQL."

While most MySQL applications are PHP-based, it also supports .NET
applications, Brust noted. "MySQLhas done a pretty good job at working
nicely with Windows and ADO.NET," he said. "But I think by and large
it is PHP developers."

According to Sun's internal surveys, SQL Server is the number one
platform that customers migrate from when moving to MySQL, said Robin
Schumacher, MySQL's director of product management. "People using
MySQL on Windows makes a very nice alternative to SQL Server,"
Schumacher said. For enterprise implementations, Linux is still the
largest platform for MySQL "but Windows is right behind it," he added.

"They have to see the value of MySQL in the ability for it to continue
to gain on the SQL Server marketplace," added Ian Abramson, president
of Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) and a director at
Toronto-based Thoughtcorp, a data warehousing and BI consultancy, who
said the Oracle user community welcomes MySQL joining the fold.

Meanwhile Sun this week coincidently announced the preview of the next
release -- My SQL 5.4, which it says will be far more scalable than
the current version.

What impact do you think Oracle's acquisition of Sun will have on
MySQL, open source databases and SQL Server? Drop me a line at
jschwartz at 1105media.com.


Jeffrey Schwartz is editor of ADTmag.com and news editor of Visual
Studio Magazine.

Regards,

Steve Erbach
Neenah, WI
http://www.NeenahPolitics.com
http://www.TheTownCrank.com


On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 9:00 AM, Arthur Fuller <fuller.artful at gmail.com> wrote:
> Today the announcement became official. See
> http://www.sun.com/third-party/global/oracle/index.jsp.
>
> Arthur
> _______________________________________________