MySQL Trots Out VAR Program, Database Clustering
This week, the company will unveil a new VAR program, designed to better entrench the database in businesses of all sizes, and long-anticipated clustering technology, which stands to make the database more suitable for use in large enterprises.
At its base level, MySQL's three-tier VAR program starts with a no-cost affiliate program called MySQL Developer Connection. Partners can sign up without obligation but still can promote their related products and services on the MySQL Web site.
"This is simple, affiliate-level stuff. They get a discount or spiff on selling servers," said Zack Urlocker, vice president of marketing at MySQL, Menlo Park, Calif.
Partners at the authorized level must certify one MySQL professional, a yearly requirement that costs about $1,500. In return, those partners get discounts, training, technical support and a 15 percent commission on MySQL products.
At the high end, MySQL certified partners must ante up $5,000 annually and field five trained and certified MySQL professionals. VARs in that partnership level get a 20 percent commission on MySQL sales and a dedicated partner manager.
Rackspace, a MySQL hosting partner, will be one of the first certified partners in the new program, Urlocker said.
Discount levels may be tweaked as the company shakes out the program, he added. VAR partners typically would resell the commercial license of the product vs. the open-source model.
At the MySQL Users' Conference in Orlando, Fla., this week, MySQL also is slated to showcase MySQL Cluster technology, which the company claims will deliver 99.999 percent availability to important database applications. Like the database itself, the clustering will be offered under a free General Public License (GPL) or via a commercial license. The latter will cost $5,000 per processor. A preview version is now available for download from the MySQL Web site. The production version is slated to ship in the third quarter.
The clustering is based on Alzato technology that MySQL acquired last year.
With the addition of clustering, MySQL is starting to shift its message. In the past, company executives were careful to position the MySQL database as a complement to databases from Oracle and Microsoft, rather than a competitor of them.
The Alzato clustering, like the clustering offered by IBM's DB2 and NCR's Teradata, is based on a shared-nothing architecture. Oracle, which touts its Real Application Clusters (RAC) as a cornerstone of Oracle 10g pitches, is famous for disparaging shared-nothing as "do nothing" technology. That characterization has drawn fire from database rivals, industry analysts and other observers.
In shared-nothing systems, each server has dedicated storage for it and its data. Shared disk systems tend to be pricier and more complex because each server can write and save data to all disks in the system, which requires more complicated access controls and locking mechanisms.
"Our database clustering is parallel server architecture, a shared-nothing approach," Urlocker told CRN. "There are different clustering approaches. Shared-nothing is not the only way to do it, but it's a good way to do it. Oracle has been engaging in clever repartee."
The shared-nothing architecture is cost-effective and covers 80 percent to 90 percent of the market, Urlocker said. The clusters run on Linux, Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X operating systems.
The MySQL database, which runs on Windows, Linux and Unix, costs $495 per server in commercial-license form, which is less expensive than Oracle or even Microsoft rivals. Oracle Standard Edition One costs $4,995 per processor, roughly the same price as Microsoft SQL Server Standard Edition. IBM's DB2 Express version for small and midsize businesses runs $499 per server plus $99 per named user.
Janet Perna, general manager of IBM Software's Data Management group, acknowledged the MySQL phenomenon. "There have been a lot of downloads, but when you look under the hood, [MySQL] is many things. It can be a database that's very fast but with no transaction or integrity support, or it can be a database that's slow but has some transaction support," Perna said. "The fact that it's easy to get hold of and play with is interesting. But it is certainly not free and not robust in any way, shape or form."
Presumably, the hundreds of MySQL fans gathered in Orlando this week would dispute that contention.