Maxed Out
Because the System i can run at redline speed all day long . . .
April 30, 2007
Massively Popular MySQL Open DB Coming to System i
The massively popular MySQL open source database is coming to the System i. IBM has partnered with MySQL AB, a company that boasts 11 million installations of the MySQL database, which is used in both large and small organizations. The company's database products compete with IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, and a handful of open source solutions, so on the surface, this seems like an odd move for IBM — what's wrong with DB2 for i5/OS, anyway?
There's nothing wrong with DB2, but it turns out IBM has a killer answer: DB2 for i5/OS will become a certified MySQL storage engine, which will let you implement online and transactional MySQL applications but store the data in DB2.
Basically, existing DB2-based applications will be be able to access MySQL application data, and existing DB2 data can be accessed by new MySQL applications. Here's a slide that shows the associations.
Here at COMMON, I caught up with Ethan O'Rafferty, who is the director of strategic alliances for MySQL AB, which has headquarters in Sweden and the United States. The guy, as you might imagine, is pretty stoked about the deal — IBM is, after all, going to resell the company's solutions worldwide.
What's really wild is that IBM approached MySQL AB, O'Rafferty noted. IBM's Mike Smith, who is the chief software architect for the System i, apparently got the deal started, and since PHP developers tend to be keen on the MySQL database, the move makes implicit sense.
In the first year of availability, PHP for i5/OS has been downloaded about 5,000 times. IBM System i General Manager Mark Shearer noted in the keynote at COMMON that PHP has been exceptionally popular in Japan, but he didn't get into other specific geographies or details. It's still hard to say how many of those 5,000 downloads represent significant development efforts. (I'll have to catch up with Zend here at COMMON and see if I can get something more definitive out of them.)
In any event, the MySQL move will essentially bring thousands of open source MySQL and PHP applications to the System i, not to mention a whole new set of developers and potential DBAs — see "When Pros Become Cons: The System i DBA."
In addition, there are a lot of sizable companies, including Google and Yahoo! that use MySQL for high-volume business applications, so the potential for solutions isn't limited to dinky little modules.
The PHP and MySQL System i efforts, Shearer noted, is "a great example of us trying to stay relevant with the technologies supported in the System i platform."
Your Thoughts
Here's a couple of questions for the i5 community:
- Do you have developers using PHP?
- Do you already have MySQL in use in your organization?
- Any thoughts on the viability of using a MySQL and PHP stack to head toward the Web? Think it might be easier/better than WebSphere on System i?
Posted by cmaxcer at April 30, 2007 12:05 AM
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