Sun Microsystems said on Tuesday that it has successfully completed its acquisition of MySQL AB, cementing its entrance into the 15 billion dollar database market.“Starting today, we're rolling out global programs to raise awareness and adoption of MySQL among more established... |
Sun Microsystems said on Tuesday that it has successfully completed its acquisition of MySQL AB, cementing its entrance into the 15 billion dollar database market.
“Starting today, we're rolling out global programs to raise awareness and adoption of MySQL among more established enterprises…we're introducing global, enterprise support programs for MySQL - offering the largest institutions on earth a new option in mission critical deployment. We are going all out to sign up new customers, extending MySQL's reach,” Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and president of Sun Microsystems wrote in his blog.
With this partnership, Sun is now able to provide its hardware, software and services on a single, integrated, end-to-end platform for customers bringing with it cost savings benefits.
“The overall message is simple: we're bringing our largest customers the innovation and performance the world's most important on-line companies are already experiencing - giving them the option of putting MySQL into global, mission critical deployment,” Schwartz added in his blog.
Sun announced in mid January 2008 that it will be acquiring the open source database company for 1 billion dollars(approximately million in cash in exchange for all MySQL stock and assume approximately million in options)-- an outlandish price to pay according to some critics who reckon there is no economic model behind open source.
ZacK Urlocker, executive vice president of products for MySQL begs to differ. In a phone interview with SDA Asia, he ascertained that MySQL will open new market opportunities for Sun and will be a cornerstone of Sun’s strategy to enable web 2.0 developers to build platforms.
The partnership will at the same time widen Sun’s reach to customers who might be interested in buying more equipment and software. MySQL calls web 2.0 companies such as Alibaba.com, Baidu, Facebook and Google customers.
The alignment with Sun is said to benefit MySQL by extending the commercial appeal of its offerings and improve its value proposition with the addition of Sun's global services organization. MySQL will also gain new distribution through Sun's channels including its OEM relationships with Intel, IBM and Dell.
According to Urlocker, with MySQL being a relatively small company its integration with Sun will act as a catalyst for it to grow faster as a systems company.
MySQL has been operating in the Asia Pacific region for some 12 months now and has a total of 10 employees. It has been predominantly focusing on the Japanese and Korean markets but hopes to extend its geographic reach via its partnership with Sun.
As attractive a value proposition as this may sound, Urlocker also did add that the database company must make sure it does not loose its core focus.
“Our open source and platform strategy will remain the same,” he stressed.
MySQL will also continue its commitments to its strategic partnerships with popular platform vendors such as Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat and Zend.
Effective immediately, Sun has also made available MySQL's complete portfolio of products and enterprise services backed by its 17,000-strong global sales and services organization and its international network of authorized distribution channels.
The offerings available now include; 7X24 year round global, enterprise-class database subscriptions and services for the entire MySQL product line. |
