Database start-ups bet on open source

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next 12 to 24 months.

Other open-source databases available include Sleepycat, Firebird and Derby.

Felt around the industry?
So far, executives at the leading three database companies--Oracle, IBM and Microsoft--discount the impact that upstart companies are having.

Yet at the same time, all three of the heavyweights have in the past year introduced a low-end edition of their database meant to appeal to small- and medium-size businesses. Oracle, for example, has a database that costs $149 per user, which is limited to one server CPU but is the same as the company's high-end version.

Microsoft, which has a free database, has also added a number of typically high-end features, including business intelligence tools, to the Workgroup edition of its product, which costs $3,899 per processor.

In a recent interview with CNET News.com, Oracle President Charles Phillips said that open-source databases are a "net positive" on Oracle's own database business, which is doing very well.

"We think open source has (played) an important part in introducing new customers, who we wouldn't have known about, to the idea of databases," Phillips said, noting that about 40 percent of new open-source database customers did not previously use a database. "When they want to do something more serious...they very quickly jump onto Oracle."

Noel Yuhanna, database analyst at Forrester, expects that there will be more competition among database companies as new market entrants look to lure away customers of entrenched database providers.

Open-source databases are having the biggest impact on the low end, where a "good enough" database can serve many of a company's needs, he said.

Yuhanna predicted that there will be more companies looking to offer support services, which are crucial to corporate adoption of open-source products. Already, SourceLabs and SpikeSource offer subscription-based support services around open-source development middleware, including databases.

"Competition is good. It just means that the market is about to take off," Yuhanna said. "Certainly we're seeing a lot of interest in open source. These (new vendor) initiatives are adding a bigger and larger solution focus."

[edbong]

Co-existence?

Maybe databases are a good example of co-existence of open and closed source software. The majority of organizations might be using FOSS products but there will be plenty of space in the high-end/innovation space for commercial/closed product. Tim Delhaes - <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.humano2.org" target="_newWindow">http://www.humano2.org</a>

SQLite: an open source database for PHP

The article on open source databases mentions:
Other open-source databases available include Sleepycat, Firebird and Derby.

I'd like to add that there is another one called SQLite (see <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://sqlite.org" target="_newWindow">http://sqlite.org</a> and <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://php.net/sqlite" target="_newWindow">http://php.net/sqlite</a> ). This database, claiming speeds comparable to mySQL, now ships embedded with PHP for Windows, and the significance is that SQLite is a personal database only available to the local user (that is, it is not available to an internet user), where PHP is considered a local user. This means that it is less exposed (more secure) and there is not the overhead associated with it acting as a server. In addition, each database is contained within a single file so individual databases can be trivially relocated even to other machines. While not as robust as mySQL, from my point of view the chief benefit is that it increases portability and reduces overhead for the developer.

Csaba Gabor from Vienna

[Mendz]

Open-source market

For sure, open-source will always have its share of the market. They'll grow, fall and stabilize in the same economic behavior as the proprietary counterparts. The success is not dependent on the open-source movement. Rather, the success depends on the quality and acceptance of the products themselves.