Open-Source Databases Spreading Like Rabbits

They're jumping in popularity and they're safer, too: Open-source database adoption has shot up 20 percent in the last six months, according to new research, and findings show that they suffer substantially fewer security breaches than their proprietary k

Open-source database adoption has shot up 20 percent in the last six months, according to new research.

Evans Data Corp.s Fall 2005 Database Development Survey, released on Tuesday, found that deployment of MySQL, for example, increased by more than 25 percent in that time. The open-source database is being used by 44 percent of 400 surveyed developers, according to the survey.

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Regarding security, Evans Data found that proprietary database servers are more likely to have suffered a security breach in the past year than their open-source brethren. Only about 9 percent of developers working with open-source databases suffered breaches last year, compared with about 15 percent of those working with proprietary databases.

In its report, Evans Data noted that its survey attempted to track direct exploits against databases that result in financial damage or privacy violations, as opposed to virus attacks that try to hamstring e-mail systems or exploit desktop system vulnerabilities.

These direct database assaults are often caused by malicious viruses or worms launched at directly disrupting either files or the operating system supporting the database. Internal threats from employee error or deliberate attack were also considered, according to the report.

Proprietary databases most common weakness was network intrusions. For open-source databases, user authentication was the most likely source of breach.

In other database findings, the survey found that more than 60 percent of respondents said their companies can recover mission-critical database systems in less than an hour. Some 20 percent said they could do so in less than 5 minutes. Eight percent reported that it would take more than 12 hours to restore access to data.

As far as mobile databases go, some 75 percent of developers have plans to roll them out. Thirty-two percent said theyre currently deploying or plan to deploy mobile database applications in the coming six months. Another 70 percent of developers plan to deploy embedded databases, and 24 percent are doing so now.

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