Open Source DBMS

1. Open Source Database Management Systems
   The rapid acceptance and media glare surrounding Linux has enlivened the Open Source community. Indeed, the open source software movement is a rolling freight train that cannot be stopped, as much as Microsoft may want to stop it. The term ?open source? refers to software that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve. Often ?open source? is interpreted to mean free software. This is understandable, but the open source concept of free is closer to liberty than to no charge. LAMP architectures will be used for certain database applications and systems that meet a specific set of criteria. The acronym LAMP is commonly used as a shortcut to specify the most popular open source software. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache Web server, MySQL database and the PHP/Python/Perl development languages. It is a collective of open source software that can be used to deploy applications with minimal cost, which is the intriguing part to most of its adopters.
     
2. Open source DBMS vendors
   Like other entrepreneurs, Roger Holden knows that starting a business is risky. Part of that risk involves assembling the right IT infrastructure on a limited budget. One wrong move and that infrastructure can do in a whole company. Still, with limited funds, Holden started an airline flight tracking company, Red One Aviation. After evaluating several database software vendors, Holden chose MySQL DBMS (database management system) because it was cheaper than the commercial vendors he evaluated. Those other vendors came with the sort of bells and whistles that this president decided he didn't need. For Holden and other company CEOs on limited budgets, open source databases are making their mark. Not only are viable open source database products more available, but some vendors have added advanced DBMS features and functionality. 
     
3. Open-source MySQL DBMS adds clustering tech
   Swedish open-source database maker MySQL AB plans to release a new clustered database product with high-availability support next month, company officials disclosed. The new MySQL Cluster combines the company's flagship open-source database with a clustering architecture officials say is designed to deliver database applications with so-called five-nines availability (99.999%, or less than five minutes of downtime per year). The new cluster capabilities are based on technology from Alzato, a start-up venture created by European telecom equipment maker Ericsson in 2000 and acquired by MySQL AB last October. Officials describe the technology, called NDB Cluster, as a high-availability data management system designed for the telecom/IP environment. MySQL Cluster is designed to automatically shift workloads among as many as 32 servers, presenting the company with an opportunity to target larger organizations with its products. 
      
4. DBMS2-DataBase Management System
   A Slashdot thread tonight on the possibility of Oracle directly supporting Linux got me thinking ? integration of DBMS and OS is much more common than one might at first realize, especially least in high-end data warehousing.
   Think about it.
   * Mainframe DB2 has OS/DBMS integration.
   * Teradata has OS/DBMS integration.
   * Oracle, unlike other open system DBMS vendors, has always had a lot of careful integration with (or at least interfacing to) each individual DBMS it supports.
   * Microsoft of course integrates DBMS and OS
   * The data warehousing appliance vendors integrate DBMS and OS. Stuart Frost of DATallegro made some excellent, detailed comments in this thread laying out that case.
   
   
5. Open Source DBMS Case Study
   Last year, a number of events broke the mold in what the analysts refer to as the DBMS (database management system) market, valued by Dataquest at $8.8 billion in 2000. Emerging among the bright new kids on the block are commercial distributions of Open Source Postgre
   SQL and MySQL. We talked to Dalton Han of CommVault and Jaime Bozza of the twin portals: The Wireless Developer Network (for the wireless web industry) and GeoCommunity (for the Geographic Information Systems industry). Both Han and Bozza represent able IT planners who understand that the strengths of MySQL and those of PostgreSQL are not one and the same.
      
6. Oracle Open-Source DBMS
   The Sleepycat acquisition extends Oracle's set of offerings for embedded DBMSs. Oracle already has Oracle Lite for mobile devices and the TimesTen DBMS for high-end analytical and high-speed transactional in-memory applications. Sleepycat's Berkeley DB gives Oracle capabilities that address the needs of the "edge" applications market - the market for embedded applications that run on devices such as routers or appliances. This gives Oracle a set of DBMSs for the embedded space that is unequaled by other vendors'. Although Sleepycat has been in business for about nine years, it has remained a small company with a loyal customer base of primarily large vendors (for example, Amazon, AT&T, HP and Sony). Oracle's ownership will give Berkeley DB greater market appeal for mainstream users, extending the product's reach through the Oracle sales and customer support organizations.
     
7. Compliance, Open Source Drive Database Market
   Compliance regulations and rising open source software consumption made growth in the worldwide relational database management systems (RDBMS) market surge in 2005, according to research from Gartner and IDC. Gartner said RDBMS software revenue totaled $13.8 billion in 2005, an 8.3 percent spike from 2004 revenue. IDC, which uses different metrics to arrive at its sales totals, said RDBMS sales grew 9.4 percent to $14.6 billion last year from 2004. Relational databases (define) are organized in tables and accessed based on the relationships between different data objects. Such databases often include a Structured Query Language (SQL) (define) application programming interface. 
      
8. The Open Source DBMS Movement Gathers Momentum
   This IDC study examines recent developments concerning open source DBMS products and their implications for their vendors, partners, and competitors. Open source DBMS products are beginning to acquire the characteristics of products used in serious mission-critical situations. This study examines how this development is likely to impact the DBMS markets, and it considers what strategies both open source DBMS vendors and conventional closed source vendors should undertake going forward. During the first half (plus a little bit) of 2004, a number of significant developments have taken place that could alter both the size and the awareness of the open source DBMS movement," writes Carl Olofson, program director for Information Management and Data Integration Software research at IDC. "Given the impressive growth of open source DBMS vendors in recent years (albeit from a very small base), it must now be seen that, especially with such business-savvy approaches to open source as dual licensing, future commercial prospects of open source DBMS vendors cannot be taken lightly any longer.