http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Why-Recession-is-Causing-Enterprises-to-Rethink-Open-Source-Strategy-877743/

The LA MySQL Meetup had it’s 2nd event this week and the audience more than doubled(27ish - 2 via Skype) that of the first(11) event.  We had the pleasure of hearing from Chris and Kevin who are 2/3rds of the DBA team for Facebook.  Here is the presentation.  I tried to figure out how to use webex to record it for later playback but the audio feed was not working for some reason.  I will try again next time perhaps with a local screen/audio recording solution if I can’t get the webex solution to work the way I want.

If you missed the event you really missed out on some great dialogue and insight into one of the biggest MySQL implementations around.  The El Segundo Sun office location worked out just fine but if anyone out there would like to take a turn hosting the meetup please let me know.  If we can change up the location from time to time perhaps we can bring in new meetup members and keep it new and different.

At least now I have something to blog about once a month with meetup recaps.  I really need to be better with blog updates.

Oracle and MySQL?  “Select * from emp” works on both, they both can store TB’s of data and they both are used by Google, Yahoo & Apple.  So how are they really different? or the same?

Come to this Free Bootcamp and find out.

Date/Time:  September 5th 9:30am - 3pm

Location: 222 North Sepulveda Blvd, 10th Floor, El Segundo, CA  Map

Space is limited so please RSVP below or email scott.metcalf@sun.com

Thanks to everyone that attended the event.  I was excited about the participation and hope to do more events in the near future.  Here are the presentations you can look thru to refresh.

http://www.mysqlscott.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bootcamp.pdf

http://www.mysqlscott.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bootcamp2.pdf

http://www.mysqlscott.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bootcamp3.pdf

In just the last few weeks I can’t believe how many conversations I have had with Enterprises with the same perspective and interest.  All are long time Oracle customers interested in the cost advantages of leveraging MySQL to reduce their Oracle spend. It may have been triggered by the recent 15% price increases from Oracle, the challenges in our economy, the visibility from MySQL’s success in the web2.0 space or some combination of all three.

I thought it would be fun to apply the pragmatic scientific method to this process.

In this post lets tackle the first 2 steps of the scientific method.

1. Define the question.

The first step is to “Define the question”.  This seems simple enough, “Can MySQL reduce my annual Oracle license and support fees?”  While there are some amazing TCO comparisons I think an important question to address before we can answer the main question is to address “Can MySQL do the job?”

2. Gather information and resources.

So where do you start your research?

While the basic relational database fundamentals are the same, It is important that you understand the unique differences between the RDBMS platforms, the product roadmap and customer examples.

Oracle to MySQL WP
http://www.mysqlscott.com/?attachment_id=22

Microsoft to MySQL WP
http://www.mysqlscott.com/?attachment_id=21

MySQL Roadmap
http://www.mysqlscott.com/?attachment_id=23

MySQL Performance WP
http://www.mysqlscott.com/?attachment_id=19

MySQL Customers

http://www.mysql.com/customers/

While the dates are subject to change this is a good presentation for the MySQL 2008-2009 product roadmap.

mysql-performance-whitepaper

Finishing up the Sun fiscal year end. Tomorrow we start over.

Watching Salesforce CEO on http://www.fastcompany.tv/. 50% growth last quarter. SaaS is the future!!!

http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/04/11/why-how-is-the-most-important-question/

i.e. Use Open Source, make sure you have good support & you energize your staff.

<else>  Pay huge license fees,  dodge your sales rep every month end, watch your staff loose motivation. </else>