Plenty of new and popular Internet companies have opted for the MySQL database as the back-end component of choice for their applications.
The company said its status as “the database-of-choice” for next-generation innovative firms comes from its MySQL’s speed and ability to be scaled on inexpensive hardware. That has something in common with the ascension of Linux in the world of open source software – good performance even on older PCs.
MySQL has been part of one acronym that has been very familiar to founders and developers at startups. It’s the M in LAMP, which stands for the Linux operating system, Apache web server, MySQL, and Perl/Python/PHP scripting languages.
“Without the LAMP software stack, many Web 2.0 companies would have never got off the ground,” Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media, said in a MySQL statement. He very likely has this correct.
O’Reilly’s ONlamp website still stands out as an excellent resource for the software that comprises its stack, and that includes MySQL. For example, those database developers who have an interest in utilizing the federated engine in MySQL 5 can find expanded documentation on doing so on the site.
MySQL will have to continue to improve, even as it finds favor throughout web startup companies. Other databases want to prove themselves worthy of adoption by companies with strong demands for higher-end database features.
Competitors like PostgreSQL and Ingres both want to gain more mindshare in the marketplace. Each may be obtained as open source software. Both tout advanced features, and formal support services as options.
Though neither has the highly placed branding O’Reilly has brought to MySQL, it could only take one influential startup using an alternative to MySQL to bring it to broader media attention and mindshare. MySQL plans to keep improving as well to head off that competition.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
