Why Oracle didn't buy MySQL

Reading the excellent analysis of Arjen Lentz, founder of MySQL training company Open Query, of what the open-source database leader MySQL is (and isn't) makes me wish that Oracle would have discovered MySQL as a complement, rather than as a competitor, several years ago.

MySQL's is the database software of choice for the Web, period. Oracle's is the database software of choice for the enterprise, period. It's unclear, as Lentz points out, that this means one is better than the other--and why we need to keep talking about competition between them:

MySQL doesn't have to be suited to every possible need, and its not suiting certain needs is not a failure.

A knife and a screwdriver are both useful types of tools, but they are not interchangeable, in terms of purpose. You can cut some things with a screwdriver, and you can try to turn a screw with a knife, and sometimes, such uses even make sense--but it can also get rather awkward, break the tool, cut your hand, and so on. It's not necessarily pretty.

MySQL has a different market from Oracle, and that is why they are not in direct competition. It's not about low end and high end on a single scale; it's quite different in many aspects.

This knife-and-screwdriver metaphor strikes me as spot-on, and it also helps explain why perfectly happy Oracle users admit to using MySQL in droves. They don't want a screwdriver for every database problem. They like to keep a knife on hand.

Should Oracle have acquired MySQL, rather than just a primary engine for it, InnoDB? Much depends on Oracle's ambition to power the Web, rather than just the enterprise (as though "just" the enterprise is a small market).

MySQL may well not be an Oracle killer, much less an Oracle wounder. It's more likely a complement, rather than a replacement. It's also a case of "could have been, should have been," and the question is somewhat immaterial, now that MySQL is firmly entrenched within Sun Microsystems. Even so, I wonder if anyone at Oracle now rues letting MySQL slip away?

Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.

[nilshh]

If it's no competition there is no need to acquire them. It still has to be proven that 1b $ was a good investment on Sun's side. After all, I think MySQL fits Suns business model and strategy better.

[cesarr77]

Many still believe that MySQL is the ultimate Oracle killer. Consider this Jan'08 comment from analyst Noel Yuhanna (Forrester):

"This [Sun acquisition of MySQL] could really trigger some lower prices of databases, because database [technology] is certainly one of the more expensive kinds of investments that enterprises have to make," "It's going to impact database vendors [because] 80% to 90% of applications don't need sophisticated, complex databases. You just need a basic database platform."

But if you are not a believer of these types of "radical" positions at least you should believe that there is enough historical data indicating that MySQL can be a serious Oracle ?wounder?. Some people could argue that DB2 on MVS back in the 1980s was a different tool than the new Unix-based databases [Oracle, Sybase, Ingres and Informix] but there is no doubt these four vendors slowed down DB2?s growth. They started with small, departmental apps and in the 1990s scaled up into mission critical to ultimately take control of entire data centers. Wounded by these ?client-server? attacks, IBM had no choice but to provide an alternative to the small guys and finally decided to release DB2 for AIX V1.

The same thing might happen with MySQL forcing the big three [Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft] to come with real open source alternatives and not only their express editions.

There are new technologies out there that can make a huge difference between wounding and killing.

Accelerating the database migration process of non-mission critical applications from Oracle to an open source database can be a real killer. The only product that I know that can actually "re-host" an application from database A to database B in record time and without requiring an application rewrite, is actually developed by my employer ANTs Software. This company has a Sybase to Oracle SQL translator and is developing many killing combinations of database sources and targets that in my view could really help to commoditize the $18-$20B database market.

If interested go to www.ants.com/acs or email me at cesar (dot) rojas (at) ants (dot) com.

[pentest]

It only took you a year to figure out they aren't competing?

Not bad for a business guy.

[darfjono]

SQL_FAILS_MYSQL_FAILURE_MYSQL_FAILS_FAIL_MYSQL_FAILURE

if you see this almost every day like i do then whatever

[pentest]

If you see that everyday, you are incompetent.