Much Activity at the MySQL Conference

These days, MySQL is perhaps the most rapidly growing DBMS technology out there. From embedded solutions to web-commerce and critical business applications, MySQL is growing in popularilty. Indeed, there are reportedly more than five million active MySQL installations worldwide, with companies as diverse as Google, NASA, and Suzuki using the open source DBMS. This past week, O'Reilly Media teamed with MySQL AB to co-present the third annual MySQL Users Conference (April 18-21, 2005, held in Santa Clara, California). This conference featured a raft of MySQL experts, users, and supporters. Speakers included MySQL luminaries such as co-founders Monty Widenius and David Axmark and MySQL director of architecture Brian Aker. Additional topics covered ran the gamut from administration and security to architecture and technology; from data warehousing with MySQL, Java and .NET development, as well as performance tuning approaches and techniques to improve availability. If you are a MySQL user, California was the place to be. There were a slew of technology announcements made at the conference this week including:

ThoutReader from OSoft, a new open source documentation platform that allows developers to browse, search, bookmark, and append their favorite library of open source documentation, personal code, and reference books - from one program, in one format, at the same time - even off-line.

Embarcadero Technologies announced it had delivered support for MySQL in its popular DBArtisan database administration tool.

Emic Networks announced partnership with SugarCRM, a premier provider of open source CRM solutions; as well as its membership in the MySQL Network Certified Partner program.

SugarCRM announced an upgrade to its open source CRM suite – Sugar Pro 3.0, adding campaign management, email marketing and forecasting tools for helping sales organizations drive business and track performance.

OpenLogic highlighted its BlueGlue Open Source Infrastructure Management Suite, software that automates reliable installation, configuration, and integration of certified and supported stacks built from any combination of over 100 leading Open Source projects (including MySQL).

MySQL AB recognized GoldenGate Software as its "Partner of the Year." GoldenGate specializes in helping users tackle real-time data integration and high-performance computing initiatives such as synchronizing transactional data between a MySQL database and other production databases in real time while maintaining transaction integrity.

All in all, there was a buzz of excitement around the conference that served to signal the growing viability of MySQL. The MySQL juggernaut is indeed worth keeping an eye on!

© 2005, Mullins Consulting, Inc.