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Users tempted by free commercial databases

02.03.2006
Missouri State University's information systems department and Web start-up Savvica Inc. don't have a lot in common apart from tight budgets. In recent years, that would have likely meant choosing a free open-source database such as MySQL or PostGres.

But last month, both eschewed open-source, opting instead for different commercial databases -- albeit the free, stripped-down versions.

'Everything's so much more solid now,' said John Green, president of technology at the Toronto-based firm. Burgeoning Web traffic was causing Savvica's MySQL server to continually crash, and the company's e-learning applications were written in Java, which Green felt was not well supported by MySQL.

Instead of adding more MySQL servers, Green chose to roll out three of IBM's new DB2 Express-C databases managed by a load-balancing application from another Toronto firm, Xkoto Inc. 'DB2 Express-C just feels like a much more profound piece of software,' he said.

Using the open-standard JDBC interface, Savvica ported its data to DB2 Express-C from MySQL in less than a day, said Green.

Defections such as Savvica's hearten big commercial database vendors, including Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., IBM and even Sybase Inc., which have all released free 'express' databases in the past six months.