Subject: MySQL exec sees databases in the sky

From: "NW on Linux" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:50:00 -0600

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Network World's Linux & Open Source Newsletter, 11/15/06

MySQL exec sees databases in the sky

By Phil Hochmuth

Looking skyward, most people see clouds, the sun, the moon. MySQL CEO Marten Mickos sees a giant database.

The CEO of the open source database company isn’t talking about hallucinatory giant SQL tables or cylindrical icons floating above; he’s envisioning a system of interconnected databases that allow applications to quickly access large amounts of SQL database data, similar to the way a Web search engine quickly gathers large amounts of unstructured HTML data.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 conference last week in San Francisco, Mickos says this “database in the sky” would be a peer-to-peer network of participating SQL servers, where database owners agree to share their data. An example of this could be a worldwide network of structured databases of weather data, which could be queried to give a real-time picture of global weather patterns, Mickos says.

Mickos says this is possible today, but hard to do. Setting up such as database in the sky would require a DNS-like system for SQL servers, again, analogous to the Web servers. The best way to build such a system would be through an open source software project.

Mickos did not say his company MySQL - the most widely known open source database distributor - is working on such a project. But he indicated that this idea has had legs at the company for some time. Probably the biggest challenge to his idea is not technical, but consensual; convincing owners of valuable databases to share access via open source, peer-to-peer technology will take some serious convincing.

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Phil Hochmuth is a Network World Senior Editor and a former systems integrator. You can reach him at [email-masked].

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