MySQL AB’s CEO Marten Mickos kicked off the opening day of the 2007 MySQL Conference & Expo this morning with a keynote exploring the phenomenal momentum of open source software as both a disruptive force on the traditional enterprise software industry and a positive communal movement among individual software developers.
“Open source is simply a smarter method to develop and distribute software -- a way to promote software users’ freedoms in addition to protecting its creators’ rights,” Mickos noted. “By lowering the cost of entry for start-ups, and removing the obstacles to explosive growth, open source software is also having a wonderful impact on empowering users to build a new generation of more agile products, Web sites and companies. Perhaps the next Microsoft, Yahoo, Google or YouTube is sitting in this audience today.”
Throughout this week, more than 1,400 attendees and 66 exhibitors will participate in over 140 technical and IT business sessions at the annual MySQL event being held at the Santa Clara Convention Center. It is the world’s largest gathering of open source database experts.
Among the business and technology highlights of Mr. Mickos’ presentation:
* MySQL AB just completed its best financial quarter in its 12-year history, due in part to its newly-launched Telecom business unit, growing indirect sales channels, and 100 percent year-over-year growth in sales of enterprise business subscriptions.
* The company has added new monitoring services to its MySQL Enterprise offering -- making it easier to set up and manage the automated advisor software that proactively alerts DBAs and IT staff to potential threats to their database application uptime before they become serious issues. More info here: www.mysql.com/spring2007.
* Significant early interest from corporate IT customers in the new MySQL Enterprise Unlimited site agreements. In January, MySQL AB launched this simpler way for large and growing organizations to acquire and adopt enterprise software -- a company-wide enterprise site agreement at the unprecedented low price of $40,000 (EUR 32,000, GBP 24,000) per year.
In the first 90 days of this new offering, a wide-range of companies are already taking advantage of its premium database software, support and services, including Bookings.nl, Dada, ESPN, Grant Street, IMMI, Instaclick, iStockPhoto, Netshop.com, The New York Times, Qsent, Swedish National Police, Trans Union and Uptilt.
* The MySQL Certified Storage Engine Program is a success. Since this partner program was rolled out at last year’s conference, a number of vendors and community developers have announced and delivered customized storage engines that can be plugged into the MySQL Server to help users optimize their database applications for specific use cases. At the conference this week, MySQL AB will present technical sessions and a new downloadable alpha version of its own “Falcon” transactional engine.
Details on the program and a list of third-party storage engines are available here: www.mysql.com/engines.
Mr. Mickos also presented the company’s annual awards -- recognizing exemplary MySQL users, partners, and community contributors.
And the winners are …
2007 MySQL Applications of the Year:
- YouTube/Google
- Amp'd Mobile
- Adobe
2007 MySQL Partners of the Year:
- Carahsoft Technology Corp.
- Hewlett-Packard
- Red Hat
2007 Community Members of the Year:
- Quality Contributor of the Year: Martin Friebe
- Community Code Contributor of the Year: Paul McCullagh
- Community Advocate, Communicator and Facilitator of the Year: Sheeri Kritzer