BUSINESS SOFTWARE
DON SAMBANDARAKSA
Rampa Manoonsin and Dr Thanachart Numnonda with the MySQL dolphin, which is a symbol of the agility and innovation of the rich Internet we know today. |
Open source database MySQL is now formally in Thailand and is aiming its sights beyond the hobbyist and at the telecommunications and finance markets following its acquisition by Sun Microsystems. Announcing the push, Sun Thailand managing director Rampa Manoonsin spoke of how the market for databases meant a whole new untapped blue ocean for Sun in which there were many "redshift" business opportunities out there for the taking.
Redshift companies, like those embracing Web 2.0, were growing at a rate faster than Moore's Law, while "blueshift" companies, such as traditional IT businesses were saturating and growing at a rate slower than Moore's law.
"The acquisition of MySQL has led us to an opportunity for a $15 billion market. It will help Sun become the leading platform for the web economy. Sun, as a commercial open source company is the leading contributor to open source development," she said.
MySQL is the M in the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl, or now PHP) and an icon of the Web.
MySQL will continue to be offered in a free open source version with Sun providing enterprise-class support through its worldwide network. This was not possible before, as MySQL did not have the same level of resources.
Business Development director for Sun Thailand Dr Thanachart Numnonda dispelled the myth that open source software cannot scale to enterprise levels. "Google uses it, and can you tell me you have more data than Google?" he said.
Facebook is also based on MySQL with 1,800 servers and only two database administrators. Other big names using MySQL include Wikipedia, Yahoo!, Symantec, Cisco and even Alcatel-Lucent. Many companies use MySQL embedded in their software or appliances, invisible to the end user.
In Thailand, Dr Thanachart estimated that about one in five companies already use MySQL for their internal application development. The acquisition means that now these companies can use MySQL for their mission critical needs too with Sun providing the enterprise-class support and peace of mind. Along with this will be formal training as most gurus here are now self-taught and possibly the hosting of a local MySQL user group.
Asked about IBM's push into pure XML databases and if that would change the market, Dr Thanachart said that XML databases today carry a huge performance impact and that he sees rational databases continuing for the foreseeable future with XML wrappers around them if needed to simplify design.
"Remember we used to talk about object-oriented databases? Well, today they have all disappeared," he pointed out.
MySQL also has a commercial in-memory variant available which is targeted at financial institutions and telcos that demand the highest performance possible.
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