Mickos had been MySQL CEO from 2001 to 2008, when the open source database company was acquired by Sun. He then held the position of senior vice president of the database group at Sun until leaving the company earlier this year.

"I look forward to offering my experience as a member of the RightScale board to help the company maintain and expand its leadership in a rapidly growing market," Mickos said in a statement released by RightScale.

"Marten has proven to be one of the industry's most innovative leaders, and we hope to tap his experience as we aggressively expand RightScale's cloud management offerings to new markets," RightScale CEO Michael Crandell said, also in a statement.

The saga of MySQL recently took an interesting twist, with Sun now.