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People who are interested in search engines spun rumors for what seemed like an endless amount of time as Microsoft tried to acquire Yahoo last year. Now, although little is happening at the moment, the IBM-Sun relationship has created a similar spectacle for database professionals.
Paul Vallee, founder and executive chairman of The Pythian Group, recently explained to Eric Lai why any transaction would be hugely significant. “IBM could recapture the relational database market by injecting MySQL, already wildly popular among Web 2.0 firms and start-ups, with its vast, storied portfolio of database patents,” he said.
Lai then wrote, “This would involve making as much as 40 years of database R&D and product development open source in order to quickly transform MySQL into a full-fledged enterprise database credible to the largest of customers.”
So the technology would take a real leap forward, even as pricing arrangements would hopefully remain the same. It’s hard to imagine a more attractive situation.
Database pros should keep watching for developments on this front. Given how Sun is said to have pulled a Jerry Yang (a reference to Yahoo’s acquisition-resistant former CEO), it’s possible some sort of deal will still be reached.
Topics: Database, MySQL, Open Source, Programming
