Open-source databases gaining favor

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Well, really, SQL Server is not cheap at all

In fact, it was pretty dear the last time I priced it. The hardware cost is high, it takes a full-time administrator just to make sure it's secure, and the licensing and support costs are non-trivial -- support contracts alone will easily equal the cost of a third-party support contract for, say, MySQL.

The real point, though, is that it's an apples-n-oranges discussion. MySQL is not an across the board competitor for SQL Server, and by itself it probably never will be. You can get a lot of SQL Server's capabilities by combining MySQL with different open-source applications (which is, after all, the "unix way"), but again: It's really apples and oranges. MySQL is great -- nigh unbeatable, in a bang-for-the-buck world -- for databases that require mostly reads, and which don't use warehouse-scope datasets. Similarly, it has to be jerry-rigged to handle transactions. So guess what? You don't use it for those things. Simple. Because it's cheap, easy to maintain and easy to implement, you can use it on some applications, and use SQL Server, Postgres, Informix -- whatever you want -- on your "mission critical" stuff.

This is not rocket surgery. A well-run IT group will not have a problem coping with the platform variations, as long as the configurations are managed. But an IT group where developers are punished for *possession* of "fedora" CDs is almost certainly functioning at a seriously sub-optimal level right out of the gate....

Posted by: escoles@...   Posted on: 01/05/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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