If you think that MySQL 5.5 is great, then you will be pleased to find out that MySQL 5.6 is even better.

Why?

When using MySQL 5.6, you get improved scalability and performance.

Better diagnostic and faster query execution

You also get to use the optimizer to help you get better diagnostic and faster query execution times.  The improvements in this regard include enhancements in subqueries, file sort, index condition pushdown, batched key access, delaying materialization of subqueries or view in FROM.  Each one of these improvements drastically improved execution times.  For example, file sort optimizations improved execution times by 300x, while multi-range reads cut down execution times from 2000 seconds to 10 seconds.  Truly, what used to take a couple of seconds before now finish in a matter of milliseconds!  When it comes to diagnostics, the improvements include enhancements in EXPLAIN, optimizer traces, among other things.

Better instrumentation

You get better instrumentation because of an improved performance schema, while replication is enhanced so you get higher data integrity and availability.

In these regards, MySQL 5.6.5 has replication admin tools as well as utilities for failovers.  You get binlogs and slaves that are crash-free, and replication checksums.  You also have multi-threaded slaves and reduced binlog sizes when it comes to RBR.  You can also delay replication for added flexibility while getting better management and monitoring.

Improved InnoDB

Furthermore, there’s an improved InnoDB so you get better throughput for your transactions.  These improvements help you get better performance on multicore servers and also CPU servers, while improving thread scheduling.  MySQL 5.6.5 also has fast checksum, improved LRU flushing and non-recursive deadlock detention.  Another major InnoDB enhancement focused on usability, where you can now do full-text searches, variable page sizes and bigger limits on index key prefixes.

Another improvement is the NotOnlySQL options, so you get to improve your flexibility.

Aside from these, there are also other enhancements that were put into MySQL 5.6.5.

• DATETIME, TIME and TIMESTAMP
• Improvements in the IPv6 protocols
• It can now support unicode in the command client for Windows
• You can now export or import tables even if the source or destination is a partitioned table.

NotOnlySQL improvements include a memcached API, which allows for simple and fast access to InnoDB, NotOnlySQL access and others.

More useful commercial extensions

There are also commercial extensions available for MySQL Enterprise Edition, including MySQL Enterprise Security, MySQL Enterprise Scalability, MySQL Enterprise High Availability and Oracle product certifications.

All of these are planned for MySQL 5.6, which aims to improve an already outstanding MySQL 5.5.  There are other improvements in the works that relate to MySQL Database:

• More cloud, SaaS and DaaS features including multi-tenancy, elastic scale and Web-based management
• High availability, including conflict detection, auto-failover, multi-source replication and pluggable architectures

They are also aiming to make MySQL Cluster easier to use, with enhanced API support and increased capacity and performance capabilities, and the ability to be deployed on the cloud or in virtualized environments.

You have the MySQL Enterprise

Lastly, there is the MySQL Enterprise, where you could expect to have better security and high availability when the improvements are applied.  What’s more, there are planned improvements on MySQL Enterprise Backup, Workbench SE and MySQL Enterprise Monitor.

Looking for help getting into MySQL?  Call Four Cornerstone today and let our team of MySQL experts help you!