MySQL, Java best in hands of Oracle

MySQL and Java

MySQL, Java best in hands of Oracle

Oracle viewed as a better steward of Java and MySQL than Sun, says findings of a new survey

Thursday, July 15, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO, US: Oracle acquisition of Sun may spark resurgence of Java and faster growth of MySQL, says findings from a study by Jaspersoft, a provider in business intelligence platform.

Contrary to dark predictions by many in the open source community prior to its acquisition of Sun, Oracle was viewed by most respondents as a better steward of Java and MySQL than Sun. Indeed, most large organizations planned to use more Java than before and most expected to see MySQL innovate and improve faster under Oracle than under Sun.

According to the findings of a global survey of open source community members about the future of Java and MySQL under Oracle, 43 per cent of respondents said MySQL development and innovation would improve under Oracle; 80 per cent of respondents felt the Java process would improve or stay the same.

The most popular alternative to MySQL cited by respondents who said they planned to switch databases away from Oracle, is PostgreSQL. But only five per cent indicated they would switch.

Jaspersoft's survey revealed that 59 per cent of survey respondents were not aware that Oracle reorganized and established a completely separate MySQL business unit from Oracle's traditional RDBMS business, which includes separate and dedicated engineering, professional services, sales and marketing.

"It was a misconception to think Oracle would kill off MySQL," said Michael Fauscette, group vice president of Software Business Solutions at IDC research firm.

He further said that Oracle is not new to open source software with projects like InnoDB, Unbreakable Linux, Berkley DB, etc. and with the addition of Sun's portfolio of OSS, Oracle arguably became the world's largest OSS vendor. Oracle continues to target MySQL to areas of the market where MySQL is a good fit over Oracle's database products (small and medium business for example).

“What’s interesting now is seeing if Oracle can improve transparency, openness and foster stronger communities, something Sun was consistently criticized for," he added.

MySQL is the world's most popular relational database and the default relational storage engine in most open source enterprise software stacks. Java is the most popular language for writing open source enterprise applications. With its acquisition of Sun, Oracle has positioned itself to control substantial portions of both the open source and proprietary enterprise software stacks most commonly deployed in production today.

©CIOL Bureau