MySQL founder fights on against Oracle’s Sun takeover

For some in the software community, the battle over Oracle and Sun Microsystems is still raging. Predictably, the biggest opposition to the acquisition, which took place in January, comes from the open source community.

This time, it is Michael Widenius, co-founder of MySQL, who is raging against Oracle. Widenius has filed an appeal against the decision made by the European Commission to approve Oracle’s takeover of Sun, again raising the issue of competition in the market.

Last year, the European Commission investigated claims that the Oracle-Sun deal would harm competition in the market, as it cast the future of MySQL into question. Widenius, amongst others, claimed that Oracle had an incentive to suppress or restructure MySQL. In January, Oracle finally sealed the deal, only after releasing a list of commitments to keeping MySQL as a competitive force, including increased spending on MySQL research and development.

Widenius, however, is not satisfied. He spent the final few weeks before the deal campaigning against Oracle, trying to gather signatories for a petition against the takeover. He thinks that these commitments are merely designed to placate, and, as they are not legally binding, will not protect MySQL in the long run.

On his blog, Widenius wrote in the last few days before the deal that it is the consumer who he is concerned about. He said: “If Oracle were allowed to acquire MySQL [owned by Sun], we would be looking at less competition among databases, which will mean higher license and support prices.

“In the end it's always the consumers and the small businesses that have to pay the bills, in this case to Oracle.”

It is not yet known what the exact terms of the appeal are yet, and Widenius and Oracle spokespeople have all refused to give further comment at the moment. A European Commission official told the Financial Times last week that it would defend its earlier decision in court.

Oracle launches MySQL Cluster 7.1

This week software giant Oracle announced version 7.1 of its MySQL technology, further demonstrating the company’s commitment to the database software. There has been speculation and anxiety over the future of the open source-founded technology, ever since Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems, but this new version cements Oracle’s investment in MySQL.

Version 7.1 of the popular database software brings in a new cluster manager component. It is this aspect that Oracle has focussed on. Company spokespeople said that the component “simplifies and automates the management of the MySQL Cluster database, enabling database administrators to respond quickly to changing market conditions and stringent service level agreements.”

As well as this, Oracle has announced that it is also providing a new MySQL Cluster Connector for Java, to “help accelerate development cycles and time to market, and enabling higher throughput and lower latency for Java-based services.”

Over on The Register, Gavin Clarke claims that the presentation given by MySQL founder Michael Widenius and MySQL architect Brian Aker at the MySQL Conference in Santa Clara threw a spanner in Oracle’s works. The pair contested that MySQL, founded and developed by the open source community, should not be the property of a single organisation, but the pairs’ words were ineffective; Oracle acquired MySQL along with Sun in January, and these views are outdated and counterproductive.

Rebuffing this view was the speech given by Oracle chief software architect Edward Screven the day before at the same event. Screven said that Oracle will provide projects to tie MySQL into Oracle’s software fabric and management products, reassuring MySQL users that they will not be left out in the cold. Oracle expects a boost in database sales thanks to MySQL, and may even topple Microsoft as the main provider of database products. More importantly, Screven pointed out that users of the database will now find their information is safer now that Oracle can offer them a single, integrated and supported stack.

Here at Inatech, we recognise the value of the open source community to software development. MySQL has been a triumph of the open source community, but now is the time to move on; under Oracle’s guidance, MySQL can go further than ever before and provide better functionality to users than they had imagined.

Oracle and Sun deal still dragging on

The acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle is still playing out as European authorities battle out the legalities.

It's like watching a soap storyline unravel as European competition authorities now begin raising eyebrows over negative comments received in a market survey on the acquisition. Oracle has been working for the whole of 2009 on purchasing the technology company - and it's not coming easy.

European authorities question whether Oracle's control over Sun's open source MySQL database could harm competition in the database market - perhaps the authorities should question whether alone Sun can effectively survive in the future. Oracle's acquisition here is much about development for the future and improving database systems, not throttling it.

However no Christmas will come early for Oracle - it seems a decision will not be made until 27 January.

More spending - Oracle buys HyperRoll

After a long period of acquisition and a slight indication a few months ago that Oracle had completed all its purchases the vendor announces another buy-out.

The plan - to strength Oracle Enterprise Performance management inorder to accelerate financial reporting for a faster close. All this using HyperRoll. This is not so surprising as we have looked very closely at Oracle's updates of late and discovered all the new additions to financial reporting. We will be providing the full insight very soon.Oracle has agreed to acquire certain assets of HyperRoll, a leading provider of financial reporting acceleration solutions.

HyperRoll’s products help improve reporting performance, shrink the close cycle and improve visibility of financial data to line management.

The addition of HyperRoll’s assets is expected to improve the ability of customers to rapidly report results with higher confidence and lower compliance costs.

So yet again a best of breed conglomeration going on here. Check our other Oracle purchase stories:

Oracle furthers PeopleSoft technologies

Oracle is no longer just a player

Oracle to sabotage MySQL?

Oracle buys Sun: what happens next?

Oracle to sabotage MySQL?

Since Oracle’s controversial acquisition of Sun, the fate of MySQL, an Oracle competitor, and indeed acquired technologies in general, have been debated back and forth around IT communities. Many are convinced that Oracle will do as much as possible to eradicate MySQL. This week, Monty Widenius, main author of MySQL, threw another cat amongst the pigeons by announcing that he will set up a database to consolidate work on MySQL.

Widenius’ new project, the Open Database Alliance, will be made up from companies that currently offer software, support and services for MariaDB, a branch of MySQL. Widenius said: "Our goal with the ODA is to provide a central clearing house for MySQL development, to encourage a true open development environment with community participation, and to ensure that MySQL code remains extremely high quality.

"Participating members at this stage will have a strong voice in how the organisation is structured, and we look forward to collaborating with anyone in the industry that provides or depends on MySQL."

Simon Ellis, Chief Technical Officer at Inatech, said that perhaps Oracle should avoid upsetting the open source community for the sake of market dominance: “The open source community has not taken well to Oracle’s ‘acquisition’ of MySQL.

“If Oracle has truly no intentions of changing the mysql roadmap, perhaps it should ‘sell it back’ to the open source community. “

That said, Ellis went on to comment that, given the circumstances, now could be the perfect time for users to switch from MySQL and enjoy potential advantages of the enterprise Oracle stack: “By now controlling MySQL gives Oracle a really strong position in the open source community and a fantastic opportunity to ‘migrate’ people onto the enterprise oracle stack via offering potentially tighter integration of tools and technologies.”

Users, however, may be more loyal to open source than Oracle have perhaps imagined. Ellis noted: “There is risk that MySQL code base will split, which will dilute Oracle’s position. This is a real tester to see how organisations that deem themselves ‘open source’ friendly deal with acquiring open source technology and interact with the open source community.

“By embracing open source there is a danger that your revenue streams become diluted and your brand messaging becomes confused.”

The development of MySQL under Oracle is likely to be a lengthy process, with the potential for casualties both within the open source community and for Oracle. As Ellis summed up, no amount of predictions can clarify MySQL’s future; “this one is not over by a long shot,” he mused.