Database vendors eye open-source effect

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support or installation services, rather than for a traditional up-front software license. This pricing model lets open-source incomers undercut entrenched providers, according to executives at open-source database companies.

"We think the market is so mature, and frankly the products so overpriced and complex, it really is a market," said Andy Astor, CEO of EnterpriseDB, which launched in May.

On the product side, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft are trying to stay well ahead of open-source alternatives.

"We think the market is so mature, and frankly the products so overpriced and complex, it really is a market."

--Andy Astor
CEO, EnterpriseDB

Commercial open-source databases are typically used for smaller-scale applications rather than complex, transaction-intensive applications. Open-source providers, in general, are focused on building and supporting commonly used features, such as stored procedures, already in proprietary databases.

To combat open-source databases, established database vendors in the past year have dropped prices for their low-end editions. And they are adding advanced features, including support for XML and better integration with third-party applications and development tools.

One of the major planned features for Viper is the ability to store and index XML documents natively, rather than having to reformat, or "shred," XML documents into a relational database. Viper will have a feature called range partitioning, which is designed to let programmers write more specific, and faster, database queries.

IBM also announced on Tuesday the availability of ZendCore for IBM, developer software designed to make it easier to write PHP Web applications that tap into IBM's DB2 Universal Database or Cloudscape Java database.

Oracle, too, has a similar partnership with PHP toolmaker Zend Technologies to better support the PHP scripting language with Oracle databases. On Tuesday, it released Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio .Net 2003, an add-on to Microsoft's flagship development tool to improve integration with Oracle databases.

The challenge for the leading database companies is that many of advanced features of proprietary databases go unused, said Forrester's Yuhanna. In a survey, Forrester found that 85 percent of corporate customers use only 30 percent of enterprise features.

As a result, the leading database vendors should hone in on lowering the cost of owning databases, Yuhanna said. Features that automate many tasks and allow a database administrator to manage many servers help set established databases apart from open-source providers.

"Open-source databases are far and away more focused on delivering goods to market, but the big three have exhausted the list of features and are now looking at more automated, simpler and easier to manage databases," he said.

Open Source DBs innovate, not only commoditize

I think it is shortsighted to see open source products only as a mean to commoditize software. Open source software is often better and/or more innovative than closed source offerings because they have a much larger community behind them. Examples are PostgreSQL, probably the most reliable ORDBMS (<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.postgresql.org" target="_newWindow">http://www.postgresql.org</a>), and db4o, the open source object database (<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.db4o.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.db4o.com</a>), that has put native object-oriented persistence back onto the map by means of being open source.

Incomplete quote???

"We think the market is so mature, and frankly the products so overpriced and complex, it really is a market," said Andy Astor, CEO of EnterpriseDB, which launched in May.

"... it really is a market,?????"

[System Tyrant]

MySQL

MySQL hasen't reached into the enterprise world yet due impart to it's lack of features. However, the next version (5.x) promises a lot, but not all, of those features. I know that these "other" DBs don't really have all the bells and whistles of some of the commercial apps, but for me I don't use them anyway.

I will stick with MySQL. It's just easy to setup and use. Has lots of support and is getting all the features that make a good enterprise class DB.

[Jim Satterfield]

Sloppy

One of the paragraphs in the article is "One of the major planned features for Viper is the ability to store and index XML documents natively, rather than having to reformat, or "shred," XML documents into a relational database. Viper will have a feature called range partitioning, which is designed to let programmers write more specific, and faster, database queries."

Before this paragraph and after there is no mention of Viper. None. Which company is this product coming from, anyway?

[System Tyrant]

IBM

I believe they said it was the codename for the next version of DB2.

[quasarstrider]

MySQL does not scale uh?

Well, Sabre still use it just fine AFAIK, not to mention Wikipedia. Heck, if it can handle the load at Wikipedia, it is fine for my humble requirements.

[My-Self]

You nailed it ...

When people understand that, the database war is over.
Below 10% of users will ever need any of the features the big 3 offer. and if a feature is really needed, Open Source databases will integrate it within a few months.

The only thing really missing for PHP / MySQL is a friendly, easy to use Integrated Development Environment and that's a great opportunity for commercial developers, since open source generally focuses on core functions rather than user friendliness.