There's been a lot of positive coverage of Sun's acquisition of MySQL last week (with one or two odd-ball conspiracy stories). To me the most significant element is that Sun has long recognized the disruptive nature of open source and is now leveraging that power as part of their overall strategy. Obviously, that's not new news. Sun has been doing this for several years with OpenSolaris, GlassFish, NetBeans, open sourcing Java, etc. The fact that both companies have bet on open source is key to the ongoing success of MySQL. I don't think MySQL would have ever sold to a... READ MORE

A reader commented that MySQL isn't "enterprise ready", to which another reader wrote: "I hate it when snobby DBAs or managers scoff at MySQL as if it isn't ready to play with the big boys. Google called, they'd like to loan you a clue." Valid point. But, I'm fairly certain that Google engineers could run a highly scalable computing system (whatever that is) using nothing more than OS/2, a paper clip, duct tape and maple syrup. I am not bashing MySQL in any way (I'm a happy user). I am however suggesting that the skills level inside an average IT... READ MORE

I thought I'd get a chance to do some more blogging on Sun's acquisition of MySQL last week, but I was focused internally at our company meeting, spending time with employees and working on our objectives for 2008. Needless to say it was a fun, but exhausting week. We'd been working with Sun on the deal for several weeks, but only a handful of people knew about it. So there were about 400 very surprised employees Wednesday morning when we announced the news. It's a lot of information to digest and we wanted to make sure everyone got answers to... READ MORE

Jonathan has a nice post with additional explanations on the MySQL deal, seeing as one or two folks have questioned it. (Note that the second link is for your amusement via Sun's Simon Phipps blog). Jonathan writes: "Where are the revenue synergies? The more interesting question is "where aren't the synergies?" Wherever MySQL is deployed, whether the user is paying for software support or not, a server will be purchased, along with a storage device, networking infrastructure - and over time, support services on high value open platforms. Last I checked, we have products in almost all those categories. In... READ MORE

I was trying to explore alternatives for slave/master architectures and gave a try to federated tables. No this post is not about Sun buying mySql.

So I compiled a fresh 5.0.51 on two boxes. It’s quite easy to setup, all it takes is the main server and the sub servers to support federated engine.Only trick is to [...]

I’m sorry that I haven’t commented on the BEA acquisition. It’s just been too obvious for too long, I can’t get excited even though it’s really really big. Manifest destiny manifested, that’s it. On the other hand… Tip of the hat to Lucas Jellema at AMIS who posts his own commentary on the acquisition and also provides [...]

Congratulations to Marten and team on Sun’s acquisition of MySQL today! This is a billion dollar stamp of approval on the importance of the LAMP stack. This also gives another strong backing to the business model which involves giving one’s software away for free to up to 99+% of users!

This announcement comes at an interesting time for Zmanda. Just last week we announced support for the Solaris platform for our Amanda Enterprise product line. With our industry leading MySQL backup solution, we now have full coverage of operating systems and database software from the new Sun!

A great day for open source software and business of open source software!

First off, kudos to Sun for valuing MySQL at this price. The deal represents ~36% of Sun's Cash & Cash Equivalents (of $2.7B) on hand at the end of their last quarter (Sept. 2007). But considering how cheap debt is these days, Sun could probably fund a portion of the deal through cheap debt. A reader commented on BEA and MySQL being founded in the same year, but BEA being sold for 8x more than MySQL. True, but BEA has ~$1.5B in revenue versus ~$60M for MySQL. When you take revenue into account, MySQL secured 3x more in acquisition price... READ MORE

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As Zack reported, Sun is buying MySQL for ~$800M plus $200M in options. Interestingly, the MySQL acquisition represents 8% of Sun's current market cap (~$13 Bil). While I'm happy for the MySQL team, my views on Sun's OSS "strategy" are mixed at best. Let's hope Marten and team can help Sun realize that there is value in software...good software, not the stuff that was 5th in class, and remains so after open sourcing it. Oracle also announced it will acquire BEA for $8.5 Bil, a higher price than Larry rejected a little while back. The deal also represents 8% of... READ MORE