NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: ANDREAS M. ANTONOPOULOS ON THE DATA 
CENTER
11/09/04
Today's focus:  Open source databases growing up

Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED],

In this issue:

* Open source databases start to gain capabilities of 
��proprietary databases
* Links related to Data Center
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus:  Open source databases growing up

By Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Open source software has made significant inroads into many 
enterprise data centers. IT managers have seen the licensing 
cost savings, and flexibility, scalability and reliability of 
open source applications, and have responded with increasingly 
rapid adoption.

Applications such as Web serving, DNS, e-mail, and file and 
print serving are deployed as open source software running on 
open source operating systems. However, open source has made 
fewer gains in the database server market. Here, vendors such as 
Oracle (with Oracle 9i RAC) and IBM (with DB2) offer databases 
which are proprietary (closed-source), but which can run on 
Linux.

Data-center adoption of open source databases such as MySQL and 
Postgress has been limited to the fringes of the enterprise: the 
open source databases have been primarily deployed for small, 
special-purpose applications like supporting a simple portal. IT 
managers have not adopted open source databases for broad, 
mission-critical purposes because they lack the following 
enterprise-class capabilities:

* Clustering - the ability to run a database application on a 
��cluster of servers for load-balancing and failover purposes. 
* Real-time backup and snapshot features - the ability to create 
��a real-time snapshot of data for backup or comparison purposes 
��without stopping the application. 
* Sophisticated stored procedures - the ability to create and 
��run pre-compiled and optimized SQL "procedures" that can perform 
��common database tasks very efficiently. 
* Scalability - support for extremely large data sets and 
��support for 64-bit computing architectures are prerequisites for 
��some enterprise-class applications. 
* Triggers and views - advanced database features that simplify 
��software development and maintenance. 
* Vendor support - while many open source application vendors 
��offer support, they cannot necessarily offer global support with 
��sufficient resources for a large enterprise.

However, these barriers to adoption are gradually disappearing. 
Many features of enterprise-class proprietary databases are 
appearing in open source competitors.

MySQL AB, the maker of the popular MySQL database, is currently 
developing new features such as stored procedures, views and 
clustering, fully intending to narrow the gap between 
proprietary and open source offerings.

Furthermore, last week Computer Associates announced the release 
of the Ingres r3 database under an open source license. Ingres 
r3 already has features that are in a comparable class to 
mainstays of the enterprise database market, such as the Oracle 
9i database. Ingres r3 provides clustering support, 64-bit 
platform support, and parallel query support. Taken together 
with CA's proven ability to support enterprise customers, and 
the wide availability of Ingres-related skills and expertise, 
Ingres offers a very competitive alternative to proprietary 
databases for mission-critical applications.

Open source databases are likely to see the same rapid rate of 
adoption enjoyed by other open source applications. The 
advantages in terms of cost and operational flexibility make 
open source databases very appealing to IT data center managers 
and application developers. But the biggest fan of open source 
databases is likely to be your CFO.

RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

CA's open source Ingres r3
http://opensource.ca.com/projects/ingres/

Oracle's 10g
http://www.nwfusion.com/nldatacenter815

MySQL open source database
http://www.mysql.com/products/
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Andreas M. Antonopoulos is principal research analyst at 
Nemertes Research. He can be reached at 
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by SBC 
Gimme Shelter! Converged Services Spell Relief For Beleaguered 
Network Managers 

Switched IP networks are rapidly becoming the corporate 
communications architecture of choice. By converging voice, data 
and video onto IP telephony platforms and Virtual Private 
Networks, enterprises can supply bandwidth when and where end 
users need it, while significantly lowering administrative and 
equipment costs.   Click here to download this Whitepaper now  
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88023
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Archive of the Data Center newsletter:  
http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/datacenter/index.html

Data Center research center:
http://www.nwfusion.com/topics/datacenter.html
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