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Beyond the database giants
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Bruce Momjian is one of the core developers behind PostgreSQL, an open-source database.
In this report
Leader of the open-source pack
MySQL has become the leading open-source database, part of a popular system stack that includes Linux and Apache.
(1) Its Query Browser allows you to manage multiple queries with a tabbed interface.
(2) A robust administrator tool makes managing the database easier, thereby improving uptime.
(3) Through MySQL Administrator you can set parameters to optimize the database’s performance.
Who’s who in open-source
“We’re in the enterprise period now,” Momjian enthusiastically told lingering techies during an evening session at the February conference in Boston. No longer would the free database only be found in pilot projects and cash-strapped organizations, he predicted.
“We have the standards compliance, reliability and performance,” he said.
Earlier that day, Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB of Sweden, similarly pitched his company’s database software for large-scale jobs.
“When I speak to our biggest customers, they always say, ‘We use MySQL not because the price is low but because the performance is stellar,’ ” he boasted at a panel discussion. The company claims MySQL is used in 5 million locations, about 5,000 of which pay the company for support.
And Momjian and Mickos are not alone. Hoping to duplicate the success of the open-source Linux operating system, proponents of open-source databases foresee their wares supplanting pricier offerings from IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp.
“In terms of technical capability, 95 percent of applications that use databases just don’t care what kind of database it is,” said Robin Bloor, partner at IT consultant Hurwitz Associates of Waltham, Mass. “A database is just a cupboard to store the data.”
Still, agencies considering an open-source database should proceed carefully. While freely available open-source databases can save money, the purchase price is only part of the expense of running a database management system. The initial software represents just 30 percent of the cost of implementing and maintaining a database system, Bloor said. Choosing the wrong database—even a free one—can be expensive in the long run.
According to Tom Rizzo, director of product management for Microsoft’s SQL Server, “The open-source perception is one of ‘Hey, it is a free lunch.’ But there is no free lunch.”
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