At its annual user conference this week in Santa Clara, Calif., MySQL plans to release an application programming interface for developing storage engines that can be plugged into its namesake database.

In addition, the company is working on an engine of its own, code-named Falcon, CEO Marten Mickos said last week. The software should be ready for public beta-testing this summer and is being designed to support "very modern, what some call 'Web 2.0,' types of applications," Mickos said.

MySQL is unusual among database vendors in that it lets users easily switch between underlying storage engines. That's a big plus in the eyes of David Krings, a Web developer at Ingersoll-Rand Co.

Krings currently uses MyISAM, a third-party product that is shipped with MySQL as its default storage engine. But he said he would welcome the availability of more engines. He added that he values "platform flexibility over ultimate performance" for the databases at Ingersoll-Rand, a Hamilton, Bermuda-based manufacturing conglomerate.

Mickos said MySQL wants to increase the number of available engines in order to boost the appeal of its database to customers that are moving to service-oriented architectures.