Global CIO: Oracle Delivers On Larry Ellison's MySQL PromisesGlobal CIO: Oracle Delivers On Larry Ellison's MySQL Promises

"MySQL is small, it's lightweight, it's easy to install, it's easy to get going with it," he noted. "These are interesting properties. It reaches a customer segment that Oracle doesn't otherwise reach. It's made sense all along for us to invest in MySQL's ongoing development," he said. . . . "We've said we will make MySQL better We plan to continue this level of investment. A lot of people questioned what motivation Oracle had in acquiring MySQL (as part of Sun Microsystems)," said Screven, trying to lay apprehensions to rest.

And according to two reports from his keynote at the MySQL conference yesterday, Screven continued to give developers, customers, and philosophers no reason to doubt Oracle's commitment to the technology and the product.

From a news story on Register.com: "He repeated the uber plan articulated by management during its January strategy day to invest in engineering projects to integrate the database with Oracle's infrastructure products - Oracle Enterprise Manager for management, Oracle Secure Backup for back up, and Oracle Vault for secure audit of records. This integration would make MySQL much more appealing to existing Oracle customers, Screven said."

And from a live-blogging stream at the event from Pythian.com: "Most of the components talk to each other through open standards, so that customers can use other products, and standardize on the technology, which makes it much more likely that customers will continue to use Oracle. Oracle invested heavily in open source even before the acquisition. Linux (Oracle Unbreakable Linux = Oracle Enterprise Linux = OEL). Clustering, data integrity, storage validation, asynchronous I/O, virtualiation technology that has been accepted back into the Linux kernel."

Again, none of this will quell the anger and mistrust among the hardcore MySQLites; I think they'll carry to their graves their full-bore if irrational animosity toward Oracle. But for CIOs who are interested in Oracle's intentions toward MySQL, the roadmap is about as clear as can be.

RECOMMENDED READING: Global CIO: Why Oracle's Larry Ellison Will Tell The EU To Pound Sand Global CIO: If IBM Needs Big Growth, Who's On Acquisition List? Global CIO: Oracle Makes 10 Commitments To MySQL Global CIO: Microsoft Pushes BI For The Masses: 500 Million Prospects Global CIO: Larry Ellison's Nightmare: 10 Ways SAP Can Beat Oracle Global CIO: UPS CIO Barnes Shatters Dangerous IT Stereotypes Bob Evans is senior VP and director of information's Global CIO unit.

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