Open-source cutting-edge database giant _ MySQL

[ENet Silicon Valley Power report] lead: a new round of database product competition is heating up. can open-source cutting-edge win over industry giants such as Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft? This is an increasingly fierce competition, and customers are also seeking for new alternative products. RickHerman is the vice president of business and legal affairs of Sony Online Entertainment. The company is mainly responsible for the Internet game industry of Sony. [eNet Silicon Valley Power report] lead: a new round of database product competitions are heating up, can open-source cutting-edge win over industry giants such as Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft? This is an increasingly fierce competition, and customers are also seeking for new alternative products.

Rick Herman, vice president of business and legal affairs at Sony Online Entertainment, is mainly responsible for Sony's internet game business. His work is mainly to ensure the security of the company's database management and reasonable expenses. To accomplish this task, he mainly relies on three major database software providers: Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft. However, he now buys more products through other channels.

Of course, this is not a poor product for the three major manufacturers, which account for 15 billion of the world's $ 85% database market. Users want to have several major vendors in the market, so that they can have better product prices and better personalized services.

Rick Herman's idea prompted him to spend more time evaluating open-source database products, which are mainly developed and circulated on the Internet for free. Like many large companies, Sony is also conservative when entering the open-source market.

However, this situation has changed since the open-source operating system has entered the server market. This allows many large companies to see the benefits of open-source products, that is, lower product prices and better control functions.

Using open-source database products can minimize software spending by 90%, Herman said: "If you tell me about open-source databases before year 45, I will think you are ill. However, I have full confidence in open-source products. "

Today, the database market is booming. The defenses headed by Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft are defending against open-source vendors. It is not the first time that industry giants have defended their territory. since 1980, Oracle has become the world's largest database vendor. Oracle's success has benefited a lot from its excellent marketing and execution capabilities. In the 1990 s, the industry's technology had changed. companies such as Sybase launched attacks on Oracle, but most of them ended in failure.

This time, industry giants, especially Oracle, will not give up their dominance easily. For a long time, Oracle accounts for 41% of the market and is the industry leader. Currently, the growth of database services is slowing down. Oracle has invested $19 billion in the application software market. However, database product revenue is still the source of its power.

Open-source databases penetrate into the market in different forms, which is not the same as the server market in the Linux competition. at that time, it was Linux against different copyright software. Currently, copyright software is used to defend against such attacks as IPVs, Ingres, and MySQL. Among them, MySQL in Sweden is the most competitive. MySQL has been in the open-source database market for more than 10 years, and its hard work in recent years has been slowly rewarded. Since MySQL launched its free database product, its downloads have reached 0.1 billion. In last October, MySQL launched the latest version 5.0, with more than 4 million downloads.

Despite the astonishing downloads, there are very few paying users. In every 1000 downloads, only one is actually using the database product. only one customer will pay for the service and support of the free database product. MySQL's annual sales amounted to $40 million, and revenue is still growing at double-digit rates. some people think that MySQL will become the next open-source giant to be listed. The CEO of MySQL, Marten Mickos, said: "This idea is very attractive, but we will not be in a hurry. "

The open-source market now has more and more competitors. the Ingres produced by CA is a leader in the first round of server competition. The open-source community around S has also launched a brand new database software.

Even Oracle has released free database products for developers, even though the code is not open. Mickos said: "We have said a long time ago that once people realize the power of open-source products, they will transition to open-source products. "

MySQL pointed out that its database products are completely different from the high-end products provided by IBM and Oracle. Although some people pointed out that MySQL's low-price database products put pressure on prices, MySQL is still expanding its market and developing technologies for small enterprises, or provide products for large enterprises that have never used database products. While Ingres is more like a traditional software company, keeping pace with Oracle. EnterpriseDB's database product downloads exceed MySQL's forecast.

The products of the three open-source companies share a common feature, that is, their products have functions that Sony Online Entertainment companies need, and their database products have outstanding functions. Some new startups stand out from the competition between open-source databases and traditional database companies. The role of SAP and other companies will play a key role in the future competition. In the application software market, SAP is competing with Oracle, but many enterprises that use SAP application software run application software in Oracle database products.

Therefore, even if SAP wins in the application software market, it will make profits for its competitors. Previously, SAP has established a partnership with MySQL. in the future, SAP application software will run more in MySQL database products. In addition, RedHat has established cooperation with IPVs and MySQL. In last November, red hat and Sun reached a similar cooperation agreement.

In the open-source movement, Microsoft has never been a friendly person. The open-source movement does not expect more support from IBM and Oracle. as a new round of database competition heats up, they will lose more things.

Author: GE Yali