I'll be speaking on using Drupal with Adobe technologies such as Flex, AIR, and Flash. The event is totally free but you must register.

DrupalCampLA - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/221082/

The role of data stored in MySQL database in today’s world is already known - it powers business and mission critical apps. Protecting this data is of utmost important to any enterprise. Before you actually have a backup in place, that are some very important things to think about the backup implementation. Like for instance, how soon would you want your data recovered after a user or system error? This article provides an indepth analysis about the basics of what needs to be considered while planning a Backup and Recovery solution for your MySQL database.

Zmanda’s MySQL Backup and Recovery Solution is the only comprehensive backup solution that addresses the unique needs of MySQL databases — such as multiple database storage engines. Zmanda Recovery Manager (ZRM) for MySQL now features graphical tools to simplify the process of protecting MySQL data.

This free presentation from experts in open-source backup and recovery of MySQL will demonstrate Zmanda Management Console for ZRM , which is a web based service integrated with Zmanda Network. It provides management and visualization tools for defining all backup activities of a MySQL DBA:

•  what to backup, e.g. all databases or just the selected tables

• where to store the backup images

• when to perform backups, e.g. schedule daily, weekly or monthly full and incremental backups

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Stephen O'Grady, analyst over at RedMonk, has a good posting on how open source companies are coming up with new revenue streams based on automated services. As Stephen points out, we've gone from "How can you make money from open source?" to "How do you make more money?" With companies like Red Hat, MySQL and others, the first question has largely been answered. But there are many ways to skin a cat, so it's worth considering what additional ways open source companies can make money. Stephen gives examples of value-added services including Red Hat Network, Red Hat Exchange, MySQL Monitoring... READ MORE

A buddy of mine from Borland days, Ben Riga, is helping to drive the content for Microsoft's Mix '08 conference. He's looking for input on what would make Mix attractive to startups and venture capitalists. To be honest, I haven't seen a lot of startups using the Microsoft stack in recent years. I'm sure there are plenty, but it seems at least at first glance, there's far more innovation happening over on the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and with other emerging languages like Ruby on Rails, Scala, etc. Still there's no reason that Windows as a platform couldn't... READ MORE

Pentaho Data Integration (aka Kettle) can be used for ETL but it can also be used in EII scenarios. For instance, you have a report that can be run from a customer service application that will allow the customer service agent to see the current issues/calls up to the minute (CRM database) but also give a strategic snapshot of the customer from the customer profitability and value data mart (data warehouse). You’d like to look a this on the same report that with data coming from two different systems with different Operating Systems and databases.

Kettle can make short work of this using the integration Pentaho provides and the ability to SLURP data from an ETL transform into a report without the need to persist to some temporary or staging table. The thing that Pentaho has NOT made short work of, is being able to use the visual report authoring tools (Report Designer and Report Design Wizard) to be able to use a Kettle transform as a …

I?m having a lot of difficulty understanding the debate surrounding MySQL?s decision to make their enterprise binaries and source less available than before. I was hoping that a few days into it I would get a better sense of the debate and why I was seeing the positions that are popping up. I realized, though, that the context of the discussion is deeply entrenched within the traditional software business model. Furthermore, it is complicated by MySQL?s IPO plans. I?ve seen people argue that MySQL is not as open, that MySQL is technically adhering to the GPL, that this is all... READ MORE

One of the challenges open source companies have is that you serve two distinct markets: your customers as well as non-paying community users. Paradoxically, the non-paying users can be the most vocal and demanding. Matt Asay blogs about this as the "Open Source Community's Double Standard on MySQL." I had not thought about it quite the way Matt has framed the discussion, but his observations ring true to me. Part of the issue is that often discussions about the business of open source is seen as a "zero sum game" between community users and paying customers, meaning that in order... READ MORE

There has been some discussion about MySQL's recent moves to clarify the targeting between MySQL Community Server & MySQL Enterprise Server. Essentially, MySQL wants to make it clear(er) that Community Server is free and for those of us who are willing to "spend time to save money". Community Server is the version that will be made available to Linux distros and passed on to customers that use MySQL inside of their Linux distro without support. Enterprise server is for paying customers; those of you willing to "spend money to save time". The source for Enterprise Server will no longer be... READ MORE

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