Gluecode Partners With MySQLGluecode Partners With MySQL

A growing open-source software vendor is teaming up with a more-established counterpart to expand its portfolio of infrastructure software.

Gluecode, which offers portal, security management and business process management software, is bundling MySQL's database with its portal software, Gluecode Advanced Server, as well as with Gluecode Enterprise Server, a single suite of Gluecode's entire portfolio.

The partnership bolsters Gluecode's strategy of offering open-source alternatives to software from IBM and BEA Systems, said Alice Chou, vice president of marketing at Gluecode. The Los Angeles-based company also hopes to gain customer traction through its ties to the better-known company.

Tony Baldwin, president and founder of solution provider Salesthink, Atlanta, said the partnership should help raise Gluecode's profile in the open-source software arena. "It does get [Gluecode] name recognition, which I think they've lacked until now," Baldwin said. "The advantage to Gluecode is that MySQL is one of the most prominent, widely installed databases on the market, period."

Now that Linux has disrupted the commercial Unix market, industry observers predict application server and infrastructure software,such as portals and databases,could be the next layer of the software stack to be commoditized.

"We're following in the footsteps of Linux," said Zack Urlocker, vice president of marketing at MySQL, Menlo Park, Calif. "If Linux hadn't had such good adoption and savings for customers, people might not be interested in companies like MySQL and JBoss."

Although Gluecode's portfolio currently lacks the key element of application server software, the company will eventually bundle app server software with its offerings, Chou said. While she would not say which product Gluecode will choose, the J2EE-compliant application server from the Apache Software Foundation's Geronimo Project is a likely candidate. Gluecode works closely with the open-source nonprofit, which plans to release the final code for the Geronimo Project in August.