MySQL AB to Promote New Open Source Database Engines from Its Premier Partners and Developer Community

Business Wire, April 26, 2006

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Innobase/Oracle, Solid Information Technology & Community Developers Join MySQL in Producing Engines for the World's Most Popular Open Source Database

MySQL AB today announced plans for a certification program for the many powerful database storage engines being developed for its flagship MySQL database server by third-party partners and the open source developer community. Several industry-leading companies -- including Innobase OY (a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation) and Solid Information Technology -- are supporting the new program by joining MySQL AB in producing open source engines for the millions of MySQL(R) database users worldwide.

The MySQL Certified Storage Engine Program's benefits were introduced this morning as part of a keynote address by Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB, at the 2006 MySQL Users Conference being held here this week.

"A key benefit of open source software is that it is modular and easy to integrate," said Mickos. "MySQL is the first to take this collaborative concept into the database management system. Our Pluggable Storage Engine API allows partners and community developers to build their own dedicated storage engines, thus giving users and customers more choice. We expect to see some of the most high-performing scale-out database solutions emerge from this new program."

MySQL's unique pluggable storage engine architecture provides high performance and manageability benefits by allowing custom "engines" that can be mixed-and-matched, depending on what specific actions need to be used in a particular application -- avoiding an inefficient "one-size-fits-all" approach. (A diagram of this architecture is available at http://www.mysql.com/pluggable_engine_diagram).

The MySQL Certified Storage Engine Program

The new multi-tiered certification program will enable database engine developers to certify that their software has been tested and is compatible with the MySQL Server. This will ensure users that these certified engines have reached high-level standards of usability, performance and integration.

There are three categories of storage engines that will be covered by the program. Those developed by MySQL AB itself; those built by the company's third-party ISV partners; and those projects contributed by the open source community. MySQL AB will help promote these partners' solutions to its customers and open source community through a range of co-marketing activities.

MySQL Engines

MySQL currently offers a number of its own storage engines for a variety of common database uses, including MyISAM, Cluster, Federated, and Archive. The company is also developing a new advanced transactional database engine -- code-named FALCON -- based on technology created by renowned database architect Jim Starkey, and acquired by the company earlier this year. Designed specifically for modern enterprise and Web 2.0 applications, FALCON will be available through the open source GPL license, and is scheduled to enter public beta testing later this summer.

Third-Party Partner Engines

InnoDB is the most popular transactional database engine for MySQL, offering support for transactions, row level locking, and referential integrity for MySQL applications. InnoDB was developed by Innobase OY, a subsidiary of Oracle, and a premier partner of MySQL AB. Earlier this month, MySQL and Innobase OY agreed to a multi-year extension of their licensing agreement. InnoDB will continue to be among the best-supported database engines for MySQL -- at the highest level of the partner program.

"MySQL users can continue to depend on InnoDB, knowing it is 'business as usual' in terms of InnoDB development and the relationship between MySQL AB and the InnoDB development team," said Heikki Tuuri, vice president of the InnoDB Group at Oracle.

solidDB(TM) Storage Engine for MySQL brings forth the robust, proven OLTP capabilities that Solid Information Technology has been providing and enhancing for more than 14 years. Key features of the solidDB Storage Engine include multi-version concurrency control, full transactional integrity with robust ACID support, online backup capabilities, fast performance for mixed workloads and robust security with database roles. A prototype of the solidDB Storage Engine for MySQL is currently available for download and community testing at http://www.solidtech.com/solidDBforMySQL/download.> "Open source users are asking for robust technology and enterprise-class support and providing these solutions to the database market has been Solid's bread and butter for the past 14 years," said Alain Couder, president and chief executive officer at Solid Information Technology. "We are teaming up with MySQL to bring our core technology and best practices to the open source community, and we will work together to promote the adoption of open source databases all the way up to the glass house."

In another conference keynote this morning, Christine Martino, VP of the Open Source and Linux Organization at HP, commented, "HP supports MySQL's efforts to open up their pluggable storage engine architecture to partners and open source users."