If MySQL's core server development and release process has been somewhat of a frustration to the userbase over the past few years, clearly another part of the ecosystem has thrived in ways which brought exciting fruit to the Expo part of this year's conference. MySQL has become a hub of innovation in both transactional and analytics databases in ways which have turned many of my concerns to enthusiasm.
I've already discussed the technologies for data analytics on MySQL, in particular Infobright's storage engine technology. This year I took the opportunity to learn a bit more about their appliance-based competitor Kickfire as well, and it certainly looks like a solid product. I still don't completely understand what the "SQL chip" in their appliance does, but certainly the combination of a special-purpose columnar …
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