Oracle hurls MySQL at Microsoft database wobblers
Migration tools come and go in the turf wars between the enterprise vendors.
Over the years we’ve had Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange migration tools and tools to swap one company’s database for another.
Under the latter category, Oracle is now throwing open source at Microsoft in the form of a migration tool to shift users off of Redmond’s latest database.
Oracle new migration tools will move data from Microsoft SQL Server to MySQL, which Oracle bought from Sun. The tools come as part of the MySQL Workbench.
Oracle claimed the migration tool would also shift database tables and data to MySQL and “quickly” convert existing apps. Read more...
Oracle hopes to poach Microsoft SQL Server users with MySQL migration tool
Oracle is going after users of Microsoft's SQL Server with a new tool for migrating data from SQL Server to its own MySQL database, the vendor announced Wednesday.
The tool has been built into Oracle's MySQL Workbench administration console, and with it, applications written for SQL Server can be easily tweaked for MySQL, Oracle said in a statement.
Oracle is also releasing an improved version of the MySQL Installer for Windows environments, as well as a new MySQL Notifier for Windows tool that "helps developers and DBAs to easily monitor, start and stop their MySQL database instances, with the Microsoft SQL Server look and feel," Oracle said. Read more...
OSCON: Akiban targets MySQL users with its new database software
To generate interest from developers, Boston-based Akiban Technologies has released as open source its flagship database software, called Akiban Server. The company also released a connector for replicating a MySQL database within Akiban, and it has forged a partnership with platform hosting provider Engine Yard.
"The data that we capture grows more and more complicated. We designed a database that can handle increasing levels of depth and complexity," said Ori Herrnstadt, who is a cofounder and Chief Technology Officer for Akiban.
The company announced the release at OSCON (O'Reilly Open Source Conference), being held this week in Portland, Oregon.
Through a novel way of grouping data, the Akiban database can complete operations 10 or more times faster than MySQL, the company has claimed. It also provides developers multiple ways for their applications to work with the database. Read more...
Amazon pitches MySQL in the cloud for $19 a month
Amazon Web Services has introduced a micro version of its cloud-based database service RDS running MySQL and priced from $19 a month, the company said on Monday.
Just like Amazon's other cloud services, RDS (Relational Database Service) takes care of set-up, operations and scaling. For example, the service automatically patches the database software and backs up data.
Code, applications, and tools that IT staff already use with their existing on-premise databases can also be used with RDS, according to Amazon.
The micro RDS instance or virtual server is designed for Web applications with lower traffic demands, test applications and small projects, Amazon said. Read more...
Twitter open sources MySQL enhancements
Go get the code at GitHub Twitter has open sourced numerous tweaks it has made to MySQL, stating in a blog post that the open source database “is the persistent storage technology behind most Twitter data: the interest graph, timelines, user data and the Tweets themselves.”
The post says that “Due to our scale, we push MySQL a lot further than most companies,” and that the code it has released was developed “to improve the predictability of our services and make our lives easier.” It goes on to say that “we believe in sharing knowledge and that open source software facilitates innovation” and has therefore released a heap of code to GitHub. Read more...
MySQL 5.6 hits second development milestone release
Oracle is making the open source MySQL database more stable and feature-rich through a shift in development philosophy, MySQL Vice President of Engineering Tomas Ulin said during a keynote address Monday at the OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.
Ulin announced the availability of a second DMR (development milestone release) for the upcoming MySQL 5.6, as well as one for MySQL Cluster 7.2. The code should not be considered half-baked, Ulin said.
"A year ago we changed our development model. We decided to go to more incremental," he said. "With each milestone, what we strive to do is bring in only a few features and make sure they're of highest quality. We could go out today and say, this is a release candidate or this is a GA [general release candidate]." Read more...
MySQL founder savages Oracle’s move to ‘open core’
One of the key founders of the MySQL project, Ulf Michael ‘Monty’ Widenius, has savaged Oracle’s decision to start selling commercially exclusive extensions to MySQL.
In an extensive blog post, Monty said that the so-called "open core" model – where open source code is sold alongside proprietary add-ons – was not the original intention of MySQL and that the setup devalues the open source project. The full open source nature of the project was what made MySQL so popular, he explains, and Sun’s earlier attempts to move to an open core model were squashed.
“When Sun bought MySQL, and the shareholder agreement expired, they saw their chance and announced that backup would be a commercial closed source extension,” he said. Read more...
Apple vanishes MySQL from Mac OS X Lion Server
Apple has removed MySQL from the latest version of Mac OS X server, replacing it with PostgreSQL.
The previous version of the OS – Snow Leopard Server – offered access to MySQL from both the GUI and the command line, but the open source database has disappeared entirely from Mac OS X Lion Server, released last week. Postgres is there, but it's available only from the command line.
EnterpriseDB – the outfit that has commercialized the open source PostgreSQL – says it was unaware of the change until Lion hit the Apple Store, and the company indicates that it has had no involvement with Apple when it comes to the inclusion of Postgres with Mac OS X Lion. "We weren't working with them directly on this," vice president of business development Sean Doherty tells The Reg. Read more...