MySQL Is Back as Zend DBi!

In January  we blogged about Oracle giving the cold shoulder to the IBM i world by announcing they would no longer be supplying a compiled IBM i version of MySQL. Today we have an update on that subject, at long last.

MySQL became popular among IBM i shops because of the popularity of PHP on i. While PHP certainly doesn't require MySQL, many open-source PHP applications that have caught on in IBM i shop (e.g., Joomla, Drupal and SugarCRM) are written to use it. Indeed SugarCRM has become so popular among i shops that they have produced an IBM i specific version. The availability of the DB2 for i Storage Engine for MySQL also made it easier to integrate those applications with more traditional IBM i applications and databases.

Back in January, we speculated that IBM and Zend were in discussions about a potential solution to the uncertainty caused by Oracle's actions. Now, we finally have an answer. Zend has agreed to step up to creating, maintaining and shipping compiled versions of the MySQL code to run on IBM i.

Zend has decided to call this distribution Zend DBi--we don't understand why, really. But not to worry, the intention is that the code that runs on IBM i coming from Zend will be the same as MySQL on other platforms. Zend will simply be compiling and packaging the pieces. Required code changes will be made available to the MySQL open-source project as required under the terms of the GNU GPL license.

Zend will distribute the new Zend DBi code as part of Zend Server and will also make it available for download by IBM i shops as a stand-alone package, much as we had downloaded MySQL from the Oracle in the past. And the storage engine that helps to integrate MySQL with DB2 for i will continue to be supported and made available by the DB2 for i folks in Rochester.

So it came to pass as we predicted it would; it just took a little longer than we had thought it might. Hmmm, it seems the idea was conceived in January and arrived in October. That's about the right gestation period. Welcome to the world, Zend DBi!

Sugar is Even Sweeter on IBM i!

What goes around comes around; a few weeks ago we blogged about IBM i shops being snubbed by Oracle (new owners of MySQL) who recently announced removal of support for their IBM i-specific version of MySQL. As we mentioned at that time, the effect of the Oracle announcement is more short-term annoyance than a real impact to most IBM i shops utilizing MySQL, which seems to be quite a number, based on the barrage of questions we’ve been getting since the Oracle announcement.

Now we have another announcement from the open-source universe. SugarCRM, an industry leading customer relationship-management  company, announced at their recent SugarCon event (how’s that for a conference name!) a new IBM i Solution Edition of SugarCRM. 

Now many of you out there may be thinking “So what? I’ve been running SugarCRM on IBM i for a while now.” Yes, there was certainly nothing preventing IBM i shops from implementing SugarCRM before this announcement. In some ways, the announcement probably primarily accomplishes two things.

First, it's a tangible acknowledgement of the strong place IBM i has in the industry.  The announcement  mentions some hallmarks of our platform that sound like bread and butter to those of us on i, but should catch the attention of the uninitiated; things like high availability, massive scalability and “lower total cost of ownership through reduced maintenance and ongoing support costs.”  

Second, for those IBM i shops who are still a bit jittery about using open-source software, the support from both IBM and SugarCRM may just provide that extra comfort factor needed to get them to implement solutions such as SugarCRM in their companies. The announcement mentions “highly coordinated, joint service teams” from IBM and SugarCRM.

Don’t forget, the fact that SugarCRM utilizes MySQL and there's a DB2 for i storage engine for MySQL-- owned, written and supported by IBM Rochester, not MySQL--can greatly simplify integration of SugarCRM data with existing IBM i native query tools and/or RPG applications. Read more about the impact of this storage engine here.

Take that, Oracle!
P.S.  One side note: We can’t resist--in the announcement, SugarCRM’s CTO and co-founder, Clint Oram refers twice to “System i.”  But he shouldn’t lose any sleep over it; it just helps to make him part of the family. We all--including IBM--regularly refer to our platform by one of its many past monikers. Welcome, Clint, to those of us who agree with Shakespeare that “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

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