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Ruminations on the System i Market
June 16, 2008
What does Sun’s Acquisition of MySQL Mean for System i Users?
Earlier this year, Sun (www.sun.com) saw a chance to capture the warmth emanating from the popular open source database company, MySQL. And in what should be a solid investment, Sun purchased MySQL for about $1 billion. But is IBM, which also had been cozying up to the warmth of MySQL by working with the company to add support for the open source database to System i and other platforms, feeling a little bit of cool air since Sun, an IBM competitor, stole the heat source that is MySQL? How will Sun's acquisition affect our System i community? Well, I contacted Eileen Burgess, an Alliance Manager for MySQL, and asked her a few questions regarding Sun’s purchase of MySQL to find out more.
Q: Is the potential for using MySQL with i5/OS the same now as it was in the past?
A: Absolutely. MySQL is an important part of the IBM strategy for providing open source software on i. The available solutions built on open source software continue to grow.
Q: Is it going to go further in the future?
A: Yes. We are currently working on testing the current version of MySQL to the new IBM i 6.1 (formerly i5/OS V6R1).
Q: Is MySQL integrated with DB2/400? Will it be? If so, when?
A: Not yet. We are jointly working with IBM on integrating the DB2 Storage Engine with the MySQL code. We are currently testing this new combination. So, we don't have a release date yet.
Q: Are there any plans to change the MySQL offering for the new IBM i operating system?
A: Yes, we have plans to introduce a DB2 Storage Engine for MySQL. In addition, we are continuing to enhance the MySQL products for all platforms.
Q: What are your thoughts or comments regarding what the Sun purchase means for i5/OS users?
A: Sun and IBM already enjoy a long relationship on a number of platforms, including Java. So Sun software running on IBM platforms and IBM software running on Sun systems is nothing new. Both companies are committed to (and excited about) this MySQL/System i relationship. In addition, MySQL can now leverage the resources of a larger experienced enterprise vendor to better serve the i5/OS users.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to note?
A: Sun is the largest commercial contributor of code to the open source community. Together, we will continue to pioneer free and open source solutions and build communities to power innovation and sharing. Sun is committed to the continued development of MySQL's solutions on a wide range of platforms. We will continue supporting the popular technologies that MySQL users are familiar with including Linux, Windows, Solaris, Unix, Mac OS/X, AIX and i, Java, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, C++, C#, Visual Studio, EC2 and more!
So, it seems that for now, we have nothing to worry about and that MySQL will continue to be a productive resource for System i users.
--Cassandra Deemer, Editorial Assistant
Posted by cdeemer at June 16, 2008 2:23 PM
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