Ages ago, alchemists discovered that they could combine two soft metals — tin and copper — to produce bronze, a hard metal. This is one of the earliest examples of synergy, defined as the interaction of two or more elements to produce an effect greater than the sum of their individual capabilities.
Others simply explain synergy as an extra “magic” that occurs from the combination of two forces. That pretty well describes the enhanced portfolio of products and services resulting from Sun Microsystems’ acquisition of open-source database provider MySQL AB last year.
The business case for bringing MySQL under the Sun umbrella seems clear. MySQL is the world’s leading open-source database, and Sun is a major contributor to the open-source community. It’s a move that makes a lot of sense — not just for Sun and MySQL, but for their customers, developers and anyone who’s looking for open-source solutions to build and deploy Web-based applications and services.
Something for Everyone
MySQL is used by organizations ranging from small businesses to some of the world’s largest corporations. There are more than 11 million active installations of MySQL's high-performance open-source database, and it is estimated that a copy of the software is downloaded every two seconds. MySQL’s speed, consistency, high reliability and ease of use have earned it a place in companies on every continent. Internet powerhouses such as Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and YouTube all count on MySQL to save time and money powering their high-volume Web sites, business-critical systems and packaged software.
MySQL is also the database of choice for a new generation of applications built on the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP / Perl / Python.) MySQL runs on more than 20 platforms including Linux, Windows, OS/X, HP-UX, AIX and Netware.
However, with Sun’s acquisition of MySQL in February 2008, some skeptics wondered if they will continue to enjoy superior open-source products from the combined companies, or if they will eventually be coerced, however subtly, into adopting other Sun products — in particular the Solaris OS.
That has not been the case, although Solaris was the first platform under which MySQL was developed. Linux came second. While customers might expect to see some enhanced development of MySQL on the Solaris and Java platforms, it certainly won’t be exclusive. As Sun’s partnerships with Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and other competitors makes clear, Sun is committed to open source and is focused on adapting to the marketplace.
Open for Business
In fact, Sun has already released a new version of MySQL designed to improve performance and simplify management of large databases on a wide variety of platforms. MySQL 5.1 provides support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SuSE Enterprise Linux Server, Microsoft Windows, Solaris 10 Operating System, Macintosh OS X, Free BSD, HP-UX, IBM AIX, IBM i5/OS and other popular Linux distributions.
Mårten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, has said it was Sun's commitment to free and open-source software that helped seal the deal. No other major IT platform vendor has committed so much of its core assets to the open-source software model as Sun, which has open-sourced nearly the entire family of products — Java, the OpenSolaris operating system, Open Office / Star Office, the GlassFish application server, the NetBeans IDE tool, and more.
While MySQL has always enjoyed world-class community support, but customers now can expect an even greater level of service and support with the backing of Sun’s 17,000-strong global sales and services organization and its extensive international network of authorized distribution channels. Sun now provides a single, secure choice for customers and developers seeking to put MySQL into deployment on a global basis.
While the word synergy has probably been overused in business circles over the past few years, it perfectly describes the result of the Sun and MySQL alliance. As a result, they now can make a special brand of technology magic for their clients.