We were reading about the Workbench of MySql on their webpage (http://www.MySql.com/products/workbench/) when we decided that we wanted to know about the effects Sun Microsystem purchasing of MySql and later the Oracle purchasing Sun Microsystem.
When Sun purchased MySql in January 2008 (for approximately 1 billion USD), MySql annual revenue was in the range of $50 million and growing rapidly, having millions of global deployments including Facebook, Google, Nokia, Baidu and China Mobile. It was desired to bring synergies to Sun that would change the landscape of the software industry by driving new adoption of MySql's open source database in more traditional applications and enterprises. The integration with Sun would greatly extend the commercial appeal of MySql's offerings and improve its value proposition with the addition of Sun's global services organization.
Since then, Schwartz oversaw continued MySql growth in spite of a disasterous release of version 5.1, the exodus the key project developers, the resignation of MySql co-founders Michael "Monty" Widenius and David Axmark as well as MySql CEO Marten Mickos, and no fewer than three major forks of the GPL’d database.
It has not been the smoothest of sailing recently. MySql was having problems even before the Sun acquistion. In it’s effort to help the product „grow up” and cater both to enterprise users (which means adding more functionality) and newer users (which means making things more friendly and approachable – and building more tools), the team seemed to lose direction and ended up being spread too thin.
The large gap of time between MySql 5.0 and 5.1 is partly because of management and priorities, but it’s also the result a codebase badly in need of a good cleanup and refactoring-something that has not happened to this day (though there are signs of that changing). The unnecessary complexity and lack of clear standards slowed down existing developers and put a barrier for new developers as well.
These problems continued and people began to depart Sun not long after the acquisition: members of the senior management team as well as some of the most experienced and talented developers that are no longer guiding the development.
Another surprising discovery at the MySql conference a few months ago was the slow adoption rate of 5.1 in larger shops. It seems that a large number of companies did not jumped from the 5.0 series to 5.1.
But that’s just the beginning. There’s a lot more interesting development going on in the MySql universe these days. From new storage engines (Falcon, PBXT, Maria, Tokutek) to full-blown appliances from half a dozen vendors and an extensive re-write of the MySql database kernel.
What’s most surprising of all is the fact that MySql 5.4 was unveiled at the conference. It’s not a stable release yet, but it represents a compromise between 5.1 and waiting another year or more for stable builds of MySql 6.0. Realizing that development was going more slowly that they’d like, the MySql team picked some of the enhancements planned and coded for 6.0 and moved them into the 5.1 codebase, thus making MySql 5.4. (They apparently wanted to skip 5.2 and 5.3.)
This is the first of several recent signs that the MySql organization has begun to work toward improving some of the things that bothered Monty so much. That is encouraging.
In April 2009 Oracle aquired Sun Microsystems for 7,4 billion USD. With the move, Oracle now competes with nearly all of the largest technology companies, including Microsoft (MSFT) in middleware (computer software that connects software components or applications) and server operating systems, SAP and Salesforce.com (CRM) in business applications, IBM, Cisco (CSCO), HP (HPQ) and Dell (DELL) in server hardware and EMC for storage solutions. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, cited Sun Microsystems Java platform and the Solaris operating system for servers to be the primary motivators behind the acquisition.
The unmentioned key to the acquisition is MySql. Oracle is, first and foremost, a database company, and MySql was undoubtedly a long term threat. Many of Oracle’s middleware and software products rely on the use of databases, and even Salesforce.com, a major disruptor and competitor in business software, relies on an Oracle database to run its platform. Many of Oracle’s software acquisitions allow it ensure the usage of Oracle databases, hence allowing it to add both revenue and earnings from the software AND additional database sales. With the acquisition of Sun Microsystems and MySql, Oracle seeks to control this up-and-coming, open source database, and most importantly, its licensing for commercial use. Many people's suspicion is that MySql’s revenue growth rate, while no longer disclosed, will slow precipitously following the integration of Sun Microsystems into Oracle.
Even with the best intentions, Oracle faces serious trust issues from within and without stemming from how the company has dealt with open source in the past. Widenius says: Oracle, not having the best possible reputation in the Open Source space, will have a hard time keeping the remaining MySql people in the company or even working on the MySql project. Oracle will also have a hard time to ensure to the MySql customers, community and users that it will keep MySql “free and available for all”.
It will be easy to point the finger at Oracle 1-2 years from now and assign to them the blame for what will ultimately befall one of the most successful open source projects ever created. But the fact is that Sun bungled the acquisition of MySql, managed it poorly for 16 months and is handing the mess off to Oracle.
Whether or not Oracle decides to take on the job of fixing MySql and allowing it a seat at the table remains to be seen.
Now Widenius' Oracle-less Open Database Alliance adds further doubt as to which branch of MySql will be considered 'official' going forward. "Forks are a fact of life in the open source community, and arguably an entirely healthy one," McAllister writes: "Oracle just better hope it doesn't end up on the wrong side of the fork." To do so, he suggests Oracle will have to regain the trust and support of the MySql community – in other words, "stop acting like Oracle."
Oracle could "kill" MySql "either directly or by not developing/supporting it fully," sell it off to avoid antitrust issues, or "embrace MySql and open source and put their technical expertise on it to ensure that MySql continues to be the most popular advanced open source database," Widenius said in a blog post.
"The biggest threat to MySql['s] future is not Oracle per se, but that the MySql talent at Sun will spread like the wind and go to a lot of different companies which will set the MySql development and support back years," he wrote. Widenius is "prepared to hire or find a good home for all core MySql personnel" at his company, Monty Program, or "close to it."
Useful links:
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7342
http://monty-says.blogspot.com/2009/04/to-be-free-or-not-to-be-free.html
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