Interview: MySQL rides open source wave into DBs

MM: That's right. The license is $440 per server. It's a flat fee, there's no charge per CPU or per user.

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IDGNS: You don't do any advertising, how did you build up such a large base of users?

MM: We've been honest to our customers about what we can and can't do. We haven't set false expectations. And we've been prudent and said no to some things that seemed attractive but that may not have been the right thing to do.

IDGNS: Like what?

MM: Adding a feature too early, or venturing into an area of software we don't want to do. People know they can trust us. We've fixed bugs immediately, we've thanked people publicly who helped. That's the sort of business people want to see succeed.

Also, from an economic standpoint we've managed to devise a way of producing and distributing software that is much less costly. That means we can pass on savings to customers. You can compare this to what Dell did with PCs. Michael Dell said, I know how to assemble this and sell it at a lower cost, I sell direct. He could sell the same goods at a lower price and people loved it.

IDGNS: He could do that because PCs became a commodity. Have databases become a commodity?

MM: That is our assumption. Being a commodity market is not a black and white issue, it's about proportions. You say, how much of the database market is a commodity, and we say, whatever is a commodity, that's where we'll act. There will always be a non-commodity segment too and that's fine, we're not making any claims there.

IDGNS: There are some new developments happening in databases, with vendors adding more support for XML and other specialized capabilities. Will you not address those changes because they are not part of the commodity market?

MM: We are never on the bleeding edge, but we are fast movers. We hadn't spent millions on .Net thinking, but when we decided to get into it we immediately created a .Net interface and were the first non-Microsoft database to have that available. That's how we deal with any new technology. We take our time, but once we move, we move fast. XML will clearly be an important standard in the future and for us it is a tactical decision when to provide that functionality.

IDGNS: What are you doing to attract more applications to MySQL? Are there any big ERP or CRM packages available for MySQL today?

MM: That will all come over time. If you look at the typical profile, we started as a Web database so Web applications were the start, content management systems, logging systems, network management systems, that's where we have our biggest installed base. We are also embedded in various products. Since about half a year ago we have seen more traction on the business applications side.

IDGNS: Who are some of your biggest customers and how are they using MySQL?

MM: Yahoo has 400 real time, mission critical applications running on MySQL. It started at Yahoo Finance where they have a publishing engine that pumps out news stories. That runs on MySQL, and now they've expanded to many other Yahoo properties. Yahoo UK runs entirely on MySQL. The FIFA World Cup site also runs on MySQL. The (Sept. 11) memorial site runs on MySQL.