What is MySQL?

MySQL is the leading open source database solution used today to power online enterprise, embedded,

and business intelligence applications. For over twelve years, the MySQL database server has been the

heart of database systems that serve a growing and intensely demanding customer base. The “M” in the

LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python), MySQL has been battle-tested by heavy

transaction processing applications, terabyte-sized data warehouses, and high-traffic Web sites, and found

to be the proven leader in open source database technology. Thousands of well-known companies such as

Sabre, Google, Yahoo, NY Times, Cox Communications, The Associated Press, Symantec, Alcatel, Nokia,

Nortel, Cisco, Zappos, and others rely on MySQL to manage their data-driven applications.

The same MySQL server that exceeds expectations in these environments is the same database that’s

also used to manage the information needs of small-medium applications that rely on a bundled database,

as well as deeply embedded systems that demand a high-performing and reliable database with a very

small footprint. Having proven itself in the bleeding-edge world of technology start-up’s, Web 2.0 and other

such forward-thinking companies, MySQL is now rapidly becoming the embedded database of choice for OEM’s and ISV’s who want to take advantage of the open source nature of MySQL, but use it in a

commercial way. With its dual-licensing model, MySQL is able to satisfy this desire with a hassle-free

solution that provides all the cost benefits and strengths of the open source software model along with the

safety-net of services and support that ISVs and OEMs need for their commercial products.

No other open source database comes close to the popularity of the MySQL database, with over 11 million

installations existing worldwide and more than 50,000 downloads occurring daily on the MySQL web site.

Indeed, a Wall Street Journal study (December 2005) found the MySQL database behind only the Mozilla

Firefox Browser in terms of overall open source software downloads (70 million total).

Such popularity is earned by MySQL through delivering on its promises of supplying the vast majority of

features needed by database applications at a fraction of the cost. As just one example, Weather.com (the

#1 news site on the web) switched from proprietary databases to MySQL and stated that the switch to open

source and cheaper hardware resulted in “30 percent increased capacity and 50 percent decreased cost”

according to a 2007 article in CIO magazine.6