CIOs and IT managers are wary of the technology they chose to invest in becoming obsolete, or the company behind this technology stopping development. This brings to mind Oracle acquiring MySQL around five years ago, amidst endless debates of whether Oracle would be a good or bad thing for MySQL.
However, the good news for MySQL users is that the software giant seems to be all out in updating it. In fact, the company has recently integrated MySQL with Oracle Enterprise Manager and came up with better features and other improvements in its Enterprise Edition.
What’s more, Oracle has always been very vocal about its plans to continue expanding, developing and supporting MySQL. At the recently concluded Oracle Open World, the company revealed that there are now twice as many dedicated engineering and support staff for MySQL since it was first acquired by the company. The number of quality assurance personnel assigned solely to MySQL has tripled since then. It would seem that MySQL is one of the company’s cash cows, and Oracle expects MySQL to bring in more money in the future, which is precisely the reason why it continues to invest in the technology. The company revealed that around 7 out of every 10 of their customers are using MySQL, or at least have installed it.
Further, MySQL complements Oracle Database. Oracle Database is geared primarily towards business applications, while MySQL is used primarily for embedded applications, the cloud, and the Web. Another reason for continuing support for MySQL is that Oracle would be better positioned to compete with Microsoft SQL Server, which is also competing with Oracle Database.
The recent integration with Oracle Enterprise Manager means that those that are currently using the software would be able to add their MySQL Enterprise Edition to the environments that they are managing, monitoring for availability, and collecting metrics, even allowing them to automatically discovering MySQL installations.
They are also making MySQL Enterprise Edition even more attractive to users and potential customers. The company added in options for MySQL Enterprise Backup, a better MySQL Enterprise Audit, and a new YUM repository, as well as more encryption capabilities.
Oracle also indicated that development for MySQL will now be done on Git, instead of Launchpad and Bazaar. This is welcome news since most MySQL developers and users are using Git because of its source code management and distributed revision control features.
Lastly, one of the most encouraging moves is Oracle’s release of MySQL Fabric, which makes it easier to install and deploy MySQL at scale. It allows you to manage clusters of MySQL databases, making it more highly available and scalable. MySQL Fabric gives you automatic failure detection when you use it together with MySQL Replication.
So one could surmise that Oracle is making the most out of its investments in MySQL and is continuing development and support for the technology. It does not seem to be ending soon, because the company expects a lot of returns on its investments. If you are currently using Oracle and would like to know more about MySQL and how it could help your business, call Four Cornerstone at 1 (817) 377-1144 today.
