March 4, 2008 10:30 AM PST

IBM discontinues development for MySQL storage engine, SolidDB

Some among us (myself included) once worried that IBM was joining with Oracle to besiege MySQL when it acquired SolidDB, one of MySQL's primary storage engines. It turns out, however, that IBM didn't have such nefarious plans.

In fact, it didn't (or doesn't) have plans for SolidDB at all, announcing this week that it is discontinuing development of SolidDB and migrating the project to Sourceforge.

Is this good or bad for MySQL? Probably neither, though having an orphaned open-source storage engine won't be hugely beneficial to MySQL. Maybe IBM just got bored with the project, or maybe it didn't want to lend any assistance to MySQL's new parent, Sun Microsystems. Anyone have a good read on what this means for MySQL?

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay.

Topics:: Industry news

Tags:: MySQL,; IBM,; solidDB,; Sun

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About The Open Road

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to the Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is general manager of the Americas division and vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

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