Open Source Databases, Sun and PostgreSQL

These past few years I've been doing quite a bit of research with open source technologies. In the database arena, I've looked at MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird, HSQLDB, MaxDB, Cloudscape and a few others. After having researched, experimented, tested, reviewed licensing terms and implement proof of concept projects using various databases I have a decent viewpoint about which ones will work in our environment.

Sun's announcements ("Sun Eyes PostgreSQL", "Sun's software chief eyes databases") concerning the costs of Oracle, SQL Server, etc... discusses that they are looking at open source database PostgreSQL because of its performance, features and its BSD license. MySQL with its dual-license has a few cost issues as an open source database for use in a in-house or customer proprietary applications. If your project funds allow it, then MySQL is an excellent choice. If you have a constrained financial IT budget, then MySQL may not be the right open source database choice due to licensing costs.

As a side note, while talking to my doctor earlier this year I was asked about open source databases. He said his medical group was researching new software solutions and asked me how MySQL compared to Microsoft SQL Server and why it was so much cheaper. In a nutshell, I explained to him that you have to pay for the 'brand name' when getting Microsoft and will probably have to cough up even more money paying someone to support it. He confirmed that with the MySQL solution, the support and everything from the solution provider was included. Without getting into details, he said the MySQL solution amounted to somthing like one tenth (1/10) the cost of the Microsoft solution which did not include any type of support. A large part of the costs for the Microsoft SQL Server solution was for licensing. Just recently, I found out that they decided to go with the MySQL solution. I hope that my opinion influenced his medical group's decision to go with the open source solution. This in the long-run I hope keeps my medical costs lower.