Open-Source Databases Hike Enterprise Appeal

The creators of the open-source databases MySQL and PostgreSQL are trying to push them further into the enterprise with new features aimed at better support for transactions, database recovery and replication.

MySQL ABs MySQL 4.0, expected to be released as a stable version by years end, provides the InnoDB transaction storage engine that includes row-level locking.

Coming in Version 4.1 early next year will be the ability to handle stored procedures and triggers. MySQL 5.0, due late next year, will add more advanced management tools and replication as well as speed improvements, said Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, in Uppsala, Sweden.

"We became famous as a Web content database, and now we are adding new features to make us more applicable for enterprise use," said Mickos.

Separately, developers of PostgreSQL, which has transactional capabilities, are working to add support for distributed databases. That support as well as new replication capabilities are likely to be available in the next year or two, according to Thomas Lockhart, a member of the PostgreSQL steering committee and a director at Postgre- SQL Inc., one of many companies providing the PostgreSQL database.

A PostgreSQL feature that would enable point-in-time recovery, so that database administrators dont have to restore an entire database after a crash, should be out within six months, said Lockhart, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

PostgreSQLs next full release, Version 7.3, is likely in the next few months and should include further schema support with the SQL99 standard.

Users said additional enterprise features will help their companies expand their use of open-source databases. Yahoo Inc. uses a mix of MySQL and Oracle Corp.s namesake database for various parts of its Web portal, said Jeremy Zawodny, an engineer for the Yahoo Finance site. Zawodny said he expects stored procedures and InnoDB will be appealing to Yahoo departments that have home-grown applications and are looking for a lower-cost database.

However, Zawodny said he doesnt expect MySQL to be used any time soon for large-enterprise applications. Yahoo on its business side is solidified on Oracle, and most enterprises would want application vendors to support MySQL before considering it.

"Until you can run [SAP AG applications] on MySQL or buy apps off the shelf and plug in MySQL, then its an uphill battle," said Zawodny, in Sunnyvale, Calif. "For the other 95 percent of apps, its a pretty good fit right now."

Other users, though, have found that open-source databases arent always the best answer as a Web site grows in use and functionality. Open Source Development Network Inc. last week at LinuxWorld here announced plans to move its SourceForge.net site off PostgreSQL and onto IBMs DB2 database by January. Open-source databases "work well, but they dont handle the scale," said Patrick McGovern, director of SourceForge.net, in Fremont, Calif.

Commercial database makers are making their software more friendly to open source. Oracle, of Redwood Shores, Calif., at LinuxWorld an- nounced an open-source version of the cluster file system in its Oracle9i database for Linux.

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