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![]() MySQL's Mickos | |
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Google doesn't use MySQL in search, but its YouTube subsidiary depends on the database to manage uploaded video, user comments, ratings, and user profiles. Google improved the open source system's replication and mirroring procedures to ensure constant video and data availability at YouTube. Google also uses MySQL in back-end applications, and its mirroring enhancements mean a MySQL database can fail and a backup system will take its place in one second or less. Restarting a solitary database and recovering data after system failure can take from a few minutes to many hours.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
MySQL AB changed its contributor license pact last November to make it easier--and safer--to incorporate donations to MySQL from outsiders. A contributor has to document the origins of the code submitted so that MySQL AB can indemnify its customers against patent or copyright challenges.
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Helping Hands |
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Google's enhancements: >> Improved MySQL's replication procedures across multiple systems >> Expanded MySQL's ability to mirror itself |
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IBM's support: >> MySQL will be certified to run on i5OS, the operating system for IBM's System i, formerly known as AS/400 |
MySQL's standard-issue system implements replication in a different, asynchronous manner and, while efficient, the process leaves open the possibility that the two systems will fall out of step if replication fails.
MySQL hasn't displaced the leading databases, Oracle and DB2, in most production settings, but among developers its use has grown rapidly. A survey by market researcher Evans Data indicates MySQL is second only to Microsoft's SQL Server as the developers' database of choice, used by 40% of the 517 respondents.

And Google isn't MySQL's only friend. At the user group conference last week, MySQL AB and IBM announced support for the database on IBM's System i, with DB2 running underneath it as the storage engine instead of InnoDB. MySQL will be certified to run on i5OS, the operating system for System i, formerly known as IBM's AS/400 midrange servers. "We hope this will open up an exciting new generation of online applications," said MySQL AB CEO Marten Mickos, "to take advantage of all the corporate data stored on one of the most reliable and secure platforms in the IT industry."