MySQL's first milestone

MySQL 5.6 is the world’s most popular open source database – and Oracle is right behind it, as Tomas Ulin, Oracle’s MySQL vice president of Engineering confirmed on its first development milestone release a few weeks ago.

"From significantly investing in the technology, to working closely with the community, Oracle continues to make MySQL better.”

The release promises increased MySQL performance and scalability enhancements – which include better query performance, faster access to relevant data and improved monitoring and tuning.

The improved innoDB storage engine means more predictable optimizer plans and a reduced start-up time. Purge operations are more efficient and more comprehensive resources material is provided for performance and troubleshooting. DBAs are able to deploy systems with a large number of tables more efficiently.

Enhanced replication improves data integrity and prevents slave corruption by detecting the relevant errors. Replication performance is enhanced and system resource consumption is reduced. Time delayed replication means DBAs are more flexible and real-time backups can be created from the binary log.

“With this first MySQL 5.6 development milestone release, we are offering early access to new stable features for testing.” Added Ulin. The MySQL community can test significant new features by going to http://labs.mysql.com.

“Oracle continues to innovate and enhance the MySQL Database, delivering a higher performing, more scalable, reliable, and easier to use MySQL.” Few can argue with this.