There are now no fewer than 10 storage engines available for Uppsala, Sweden-based MySQL’s eponymous database as the company has looked for alternatives following Oracle Corp’s acquisition of InnoDB, its previous engine of choice.
The new certification program will enable database engine developers to certify their offerings with MySQL Server, ensuring that they fit into the product’s pluggable architecture, and is likely to create even more storage engine alternatives, according to the company.
Our Pluggable Storage Engine API allows partners and community developers to build their own dedicated storage engines, thus giving users and customers more choice, said MySQL CEO, Marten Mickos. We expect to see some of the most high-performing scale-out database solutions emerge from this new program.
Storage engines covered by the program include MySQL’s own MyISAM, Cluster, Federated and Archive engines, as well as a new engine, codenamed Falcon, being developed by senior software architect Jim Starkey, who was hired in February with the acquisition of his web application technology company, Netfrastructure Inc.
Third-party engines include InnoDB after MySQL recently negotiated a renewal of its agreement with Oracle, and solidDB for MySQL, a new open source engine launched by Solid Information Technology Ltd earlier this month.
There are also three open source community engines also covered at this stage: PrimeBase XT for MySQL from SNAP Innovation GmbH, a port of the OpenOLAP tool for MySQL, and the Thinking Networks Storage Engine for MySQL.
With our pluggable architecture we offer a degree of modularity. We believe there’s not one database engine that’s good for all application uses, MySQL’s VP of marketing, Zack Urlocker told Computer Business Review recently. There isn’t one engine for all purposes. You have to look at the usage models for that data.
Meanwhile, Solid has also entered into a reseller agreement with MySQL that sees Cupertino, California-based Solid selling and supporting the commercially licensed version of management system, while MySQL distribute solidDB for MySQL as part of its MySQL Network subscription service.
