Comments on: Oracle buys Sun

By: Log Buffer #143: a Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs | Pythian Group Blog

Log Buffer #143: a Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs | Pythian Group Blog — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:44:04 +0000

[...] so I heard the big news. And just in case you haven’t, here it is from Sheeri Cabral: Oracle Buys Sun. This is a sea-change in the hi-tech world, and the DB part is no exception, Sun being the home of [...]

By: Anonymous Coward

Anonymous Coward — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:30:55 +0000

There are pieces of Sun that Larry wanted, the rest will be sold off for whatever he can get for them.

They have already identified the parts that are compatible with their business plan. The parts that are not in line with that get spun off, sold, shut down, etc.

It won’t happen over night, but I *highly* doubt that Oracle has a long-term reason to keep MySQL. Oracle already has an entry-level free database product. The hardware stuff yes, Java definitely is a keeper.

If you were Larry and a customer expresed interest in buying a database product from you, which one are you going to steer them towards: Oracle or MySQL?
Even if Oracle Corp owned both products, the answer is going to be Oracle.

So why not just dump MySQL, get some money for it, and keep focused on $$Oracle$$?

By: Alex Gorbachev

Alex Gorbachev — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:24:12 +0000

“MySQL will be a cash cow for Oracle”

What??? When Sun bought MySQL AB, the revenue was the order of magnitude different from the sum Sun paid (1 bln). I don’t think there were revolutionary changes in the revenue stream from MySQL so I cannot imagine how it could become a cash cow for Oracle – in the next years, any MySQL revenue won’t be noticeable. However, I believe Oracle is positioned way better to grow MySQL related revenue actively compare to Sun but that’s another story but stay tuned on the blog…

By: Boyd

Boyd — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:02:05 +0000

Back in the “good old days” of Oracle 8i, Solaris was the OS of choice. I could be wrong but I believe Solaris was simply the OS of choice until Oracle got involved with Linux (Red Hat I think?).

I think the idea that they acquired Solaris for a “solution in a box” suggested above is spot on. As much as I am a fan of MySQL, I think it was only icing on the cake. In that way I agree with Sheeri, Oracle will use MySQL as a gateway to its elite products and unfortunately agree with Jeremy that the hopes for MySQL to move into the enterprise space are no longer likely.

Hope is there however. Lest we forget the code is open source and Monte left ahead of golden hand-cuffs. Maybe we will see a Porpoise database with some familiar features and road maps.

By: Xerses

Xerses — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:00:50 +0000

good Sun hardware ??

did you mean sparc ?

hehe

By: Sheeri Cabral

Sheeri Cabral — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:35:01 +0000

Mike O — Oracle would definitely benefit from getting the good Sun hardware for their huge storage server they announced in September 2008.

By: paulm

paulm — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:31:48 +0000

For Oracle they are trying to reduce the complexity for people using not just databases but the whole application stack.

They are not going to spin off the hardware as they want the hardware so they can provide an Oracle appliance as a box businesses can just buy. They have already shown this via the HP partnership.
MySQL will be used as a stepping stone into the Oracle stack just like Microsoft Access is used Microsoft as a stepping stone into SQL server.

End of the day if Oracle let MySQL wither, the source code is freely available and some new fork will appear, increasing the complexity of making a decision about which database to use and driving people back into using known vendors such as Oracle.

By: Jeremy Zawodny

Jeremy Zawodny — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:14:07 +0000

At the low end, MySQL is most definitely a threat to Oracle. And we all know how hard it is to switch databases once you’ve got a lot of code written, right?

Oracle is not stupid. There’s a good reason they’ve been supporting InnoDB.

By: Lachlan

Lachlan — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:54:30 +0000

@Tim: I’m not sure of the exact details of each of the Telcos that use MySQL Cluster, but you should probably keep in mind that mysqld is not the only product the database group (formerly known as MySQL) within Sun provide.

http://www.mysql.com/industry/communications/

Maybe this acquisition will give mysqld an opportunity to stop trying to chase Oracle in terms of features and focus on just being great at being “MySQL” (whatever that is these days :) )

By: Mikel King

Mikel King — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:17:05 +0000

I have enjoyed the dialog, thanks.

I feel ultimatley we will end up seeing MySql emerge as the entry level Oracle db product. It will comtinue to fill in as a light to medium duty product but Oracle will cripple it so as to drive definative nail in it’s enterprise ambitions’ coffin.

They will follow the same tactic with the intergration of Java into they’re product line. Solaris is eventually fade from existence, and OpenOiffice might re-emerge as part of their collaboration suite.

Just some overall thoughts on the acquisition.

Cheers,
Mikel King
Senior Editor, Daemon News
Columnist, BSD Magazine
http://twitter.com/mikelking