TECH CHOICES

December 29, 2004

Open Source Databases Come

Of Age
by Noel Yuhanna

Helping Business Thrive On Technology Change

TECH CHOICES
Includes a Forrester Wave™

December 29, 2004

Open Source Databases Come Of Age
Increased Adoption, Reliability, And More Choices Drive The Transition
by Noel Yuhanna
with Mike Gilpin and Carey Schwaber

EXECUT I V E S U M MA RY
Open source databases continue to make inroads into enterprises, offering more robust, high-
performance, and advanced DBMS features and functionality as enterprises look for low-cost solutions.
More enterprises are deploying open source databases than ever before, with many looking at mission-
critical deployments in the coming years. And with more than five viable open source database products
available, enterprises now have more flexibility in choosing one that meets their requirements. More
vendors are gearing up to offer comprehensive support and services to meet the growing demand. The
future of open source databases remains bright, with products expanding to include advanced features
and continuing innovation, in addition to enabling evolving technologies like XML, Web services, and
content management. All enterprises should consider open source databases as part of their overall
DBMS strategy to benefit from potential cost savings, starting with small application deployments.

TABLE O F CO N T E N TS N OT E S & R E S O U R C E S
2 Open Source Databases Have Become More Forrester interviewed 10 user companies and
Viable five vendors, including: Computer Associates
8 The Current State Of Open Source Databases (CA), IBM, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Sleepycat
Is Healthy Software.

12 The Future Of Open Source Databases Related Research Documents

Remains Bright “CA’s Ingres Goes Open Source”
RECOMMENDATIONS June 25, 2004, Quick Take
13 Open Source Databases Should Be Part Of “How To Manage DBMS Efficiently”
Your DBMS Strategy April 2, 2004, Best Practices
15 Supplemental Material
“Criteria For Selection: Enterprise
Relational DBMS”
July 3, 2003, Planning Assumption

© 2004, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester, Forrester Oval Program, Forrester Wave, WholeView 2, Technographics, and
TechRankings are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Forrester
clients may make one attributed copy or slide of each figure contained herein. Additional reproduction is strictly prohibited. For additional
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2 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age

OPEN SOURCE DATABASES HAVE BECOME MORE VIABLE

Open source databases are not new; they have existed for more than two decades and do
not differ much from commercial DBMSes in their support for basic database technology. So
why are open source databases becoming more important and viable now than ever before?
There are four key reasons. First, enterprises continue to look for opportunities to reduce
infrastructure costs, and commercial DBMS licenses can significantly add to a company’s
costs. Second, databases are becoming a commodity, with fewer enterprises demanding
advanced database features. We estimate that the majority of advanced features offered by
commercial DBMS products are hardly used by enterprises; they are sometimes needed,
but they aren’t required for many projects. Third, enterprises want to avoid vendor lock-
in, and open source is one option. Finally, the community resources behind open source
projects are often larger than any single vendor can muster, and communities can add new
features that enterprises want, rather than what commercial DBMS vendors choose to add
based on more factors than just customer needs.

Open Source Databases Offer More Choices Than Ever Before

There are more than a dozen open source databases today, and that number is increasing.
Five key products dominate the market: Berkeley DB, Cloudscape/Derby, Ingres, MySQL,
and PostgreSQL. Most of these products have a long history of releases, with proven track
records in commercial deployments (see Figure 1). There is no doubt that open source
products continue to raise the bar with expanded feature lists and advanced capabilities
that previously only commercial DBMS vendors offered. We expect more features and
functions to be added to open source databases in the coming years, enhancing their
scalability, performance, automation, integration, and availability. Also, as open source
databases offer support for more commercial applications, their adoption rate will increase.
A recent Forrester survey of 140 large companies in North America found that more than
52% of firms use or plan to use MySQL DBMS.1

The Open Source Database Market Is Small, But It’s Growing Rapidly
While open source databases represent only a fraction of the $10 billion overall market for
new DBMS licenses, the market potential is huge in the areas of support and services. As
more enterprises start to use open source databases over the coming years, the demand for
24x7 technical support will increase and so will the need for services to help with planning,
migration, and tuning initiatives. We estimate that the current open source database market
— comprising new licenses, support, and services — is about $120 million; this figure is
likely to grow to more than $1 billion by 2008. More ISVs will jump on the open source
bandwagon to offer support and services over the next one to two years.

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 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age 3

Figure 1 Open Source Databases Timeline

1970

Ingres created

1975

1980 Relational Technology Inc. (RTI) founded

Siemens DDB-4 created

1985 Borland Interbase created

Postgres created

1990 RTI becomes Ingres

Berkeley DB created
ASK Group acquires Ingres

CA acquires ASK Group Renamed Postgres95

1995 MySQL created
Cloudscape created Renamed PostgreSQL
SAP DB created

Informix acquires Cloudscape

2000
IBM acquires Informix Firebird created SAP DB open sourced
Berkeley DB XML created
Renamed MaxDB
Berkeley DB JE Cloudscape open sourced Ingres open sourced
2005

Berkeley DB Derby Firebird Ingres MaxDB MySQL PostgreSQL

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

© 2004, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited December 29, 2004

4 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age

Several Benefits Have Driven The Adoption Rate Still Higher

In a recent series of interviews, customers indicated that the main reason open source
databases were being used was because of the cost savings. However, Forrester has found
that low acquisition costs can be offset by somewhat higher integration, maintenance,
and support costs over the lifetime of an open source product, so firms should conduct
a careful analysis to see how these factors apply in their situation.2 The key reasons why
enterprises want open source DBMS are:

· Low acquisition cost. Commercial enterprise DBMS licenses currently cost an average
of $25,000 per processor, so this can add up to a significant budget item, especially
when deployed for hundreds and thousands of databases across the organization. With
open source databases, enterprises experience dramatic savings over new DBMS licenses.

· Strong support from the community. Open source is all about the community,
tapping into hundreds and thousands of developers, contributing to increased
reliability, robustness, and low-cost deployment. Most enterprises using open source
databases claim to have very good support from the community, with responses
provided by actual developers rather than by support personnel, as is often the case
with commercial DBMSes.

· Lower support and maintenance costs. The annual maintenance costs for DBMSes
often run high for many enterprises. Although open source databases can lower
acquisition costs, they may not lower lifetime data management costs. Administrative
support, migration, and upgrade efforts are often the same regardless of whether or not
open source or commercial DBMSes are deployed.

· More hardware and software choices. With open source databases, enterprises often
have more flexibility in choosing the hardware and operating system platform that
meets their business and technological requirements. Unlike Microsoft SQL Server,
open source databases can run on a variety of operating systems, including Linux,
Windows, and several flavors of Unix. However, the value of this flexibility is somewhat
offset by the advantages SQL Server can provide in tighter integration with the
Windows operating system.

· Access to source code. Enterprises that need to support complex applications often
find that open source databases offer greater flexibility in application integration by
allowing developers to change source code when necessary. This can be particularly
desirable when the database is deployed along with the application, with a common
install.

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 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age 5

· Less database vendor lock-in. With open source databases, there is no need to fear
that a DBMS vendor might cease to exist or change its strategy. The major open source
databases are supported by more than one vendor, and enterprises always have access
to source code. This ensures long-term protection, although the cost of dealing with
the worst-case scenarios must also be considered as part of the risk profile.

Concerns Exist, But They’re Slowly Fading Away

Enterprises that are looking to adopt open source databases are concerned about the level
of support and the time it takes to resolve issues. Many enterprises are used to the 24x7
support offered by commercial database vendors, with quick turnaround and resolution.
While open source database vendors might not have a large support staff, enterprises
certainly have a choice of vendors available to meet their support requirements. Recent
user interviews revealed that key concerns around open source DBMSes include:

· Support quality. Although open source support is improving, it’s still not comparable
to commercial DBMS support. Commercial DBMSes have always offered high-quality
24x7 support for enterprises, surpassing the best level of support offered by open
source databases, although this is beginning to change. Many open source database
vendors are gearing up to offer higher-quality support and improved, searchable
knowledge bases. Large vendors will offer even more support options and services over
the next two years.

· Product maturity. While many enterprises encountered a high degree of reliability

with many open source database products, the concern about product maturity
remains. Yet the top five open source databases are mature and stable, surpassing
this expectation. For example, one enterprise that runs Ingres for a mission-critical
production database application stated that it ran Ingres for more than a year without
shutting down, except when an upgrade was necessary. And most open source
databases have a long history of product releases, some even surpassing those found in
commercial DBMSes.

· Support for packaged applications. Although there are not as many packaged
applications supported for open source databases, the number continues to grow and
should largely eliminate this concern over the next two to three years. Many large ERP,
CRM, and other business application vendors are considering supporting open source
databases because of the growing market. Some are also building their own open
source stacks to ship along with their applications.

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6 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age

· Security. All database products, whether commercial or open source, are vulnerable,
largely because a DBMS is a complex piece of software. Many commercial DBMSes
have experienced several security vulnerabilities over the past few years. Enterprises
remain concerned about the security and reliability of open source databases, given
that source code is easily available to any hacker. While this is true, it is at least partly
offset by the larger community of the open source initiative driving the product to
undergo a rigorous review to ensure robustness and reliability. Having access to the
open source database source code also reduces anxiety about whether the vendor will
exist in the future, helping to ensure long-term protection, although in some cases,
source escrow programs for commercial DBMS provide the same benefit.

Most Deployments Are Not Mission-Critical, But That’s Changing

While most of the open source database deployments are for non-mission-critical
applications or edge workloads, we estimate that more than 35% of applications using open
source DBMS will be mission-critical by 2006. Most open source database deployments
support applications developed in-house, reporting databases, read-only applications, and
data warehouses. Over the next two years, there will be a major push toward deployment of
transactional databases using open source databases for both existing and new applications.
Most enterprises typically spend more than 12 months testing and understanding
open source database products before deploying them for mission-critical applications.
This approach not only flushes out unknowns around support, product limitations or
issues, and reliability, but it also gets the staff trained on the platform. Most customer
deployments start out small and grow once the staff feels comfortable with the technology
and as administrators get a handle on its operations. The most common applications using
open source databases today include:

· Web-based applications.
· Small to midsize transaction-processing applications.
· Small to midsize data warehouses and data marts.
· Scientific applications like DNA sequencing or seismic analysis.
· Reporting databases.
· Directories and email repositories.
· Data repositories.

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 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age 7

Open Source Databases Will Continue To Affect Commercial DBMSes

While open source databases will not replace the commercial enterprise DBMSes like DB2,
Oracle, SQL Server, and Sybase, they will certainly take a bite out of large DBMS market
share. As a result:

· Commercial DBMS prices will fall. DBMS vendors continue to feel competitive
pressure from open source DBMSes and are likely to lower prices over the next 12
to 24 months in an effort to directly compete with them. The current impact of open
source databases is in the low-end market, but it will expand into the mid- and high-
end markets over the next three to five years. Earlier this year, Oracle reduced its
pricing for entry-level DBMS products, and other vendors are likely to follow suit
in one to two years. Other likely competitive responses include incorporating open
source technology into the vendor’s own offering, especially for vendors like IBM that
already embrace open source in other areas.

· Some vendors will adopt a free database strategy. Sybase recently announced a free
version of its Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) product on Linux; its free ASE has
attracted some customers but, because of usage limits, will likely fall short of customers’
expectations. Its limitations include a maximum 2 GB database size, one CPU server,
and 2 GB of memory. More vendors will adopt this strategy in an effort to attract new
customers, but these vendors will set higher limits.

· Commercial DBMSes will have to innovate to retain customers. The features gap
between open source databases and commercial DBMS products is narrowing. While
commercial DBMSes offer hundreds and thousands of database features, we estimate
that only 40% of such features are typically needed by enterprises. This is one of the
reasons why open source databases have become attractive; open source databases
provide the basic database features and functions that most applications need. But
commercial DBMS vendors will add highly innovative new features to retain large
enterprise customers.

Source Code Is Nice To Have But Not A Necessity

A DBMS is a complex piece of software, which is why the majority of enterprises look at the
source code to better understand how to use the DBMS but do not modify it. Enterprises
that do modify the code usually do so to ensure tighter integration of their applications
or to extend the product beyond its existing capabilities. Having access to the open source
database source code also reduces anxiety about whether the vendor will exist in the future,
helping to ensure long-term protection.

© 2004, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited December 29, 2004

8 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age

Support Remains Critical When Choosing An Open Source Database

Open source databases offer two ways to obtain support for the product. The first option is
to get support from various vendors that offer technical support through phone and email,
often for less than the price of commercial DBMS support. The benefit of vendor support
is that most offer 24x7 phone support, which is essential for mission-critical applications.
Some vendors also offer an extensive knowledge base; some are free while others are
available for a small fee. The second option is to get support from the open source
community via message boards and emails. The benefit with community support is that a
response usually comes directly from actual developers, who know the code inside-out and
therefore often resolve the issues quickly.

Most Deployments Are For Newer Applications

The majority of open source database deployments are for new applications, rather
than migrations of existing ones, at least for now. Enterprises typically use open source
databases for small, non-mission-critical database deployments initially before extending
their usage within the organization. Database migrations are time-consuming, resource
intensive, and costly. Also, most DBMS products differ in the data types they support
and often use proprietary SQL extensions for creation of triggers, stored procedures,
and functions. Therefore, we expect that the majority of initial open source database
deployments will be for new applications, with migrations of existing databases rolling out
over the next two to three years as more migration tools become available and enterprises
become more comfortable with the technology.

The Database Tools Market For Open Source Is Growing

Over the past year, the number of database tools that focus on open source databases
has increased. Enterprises are demanding more robust and integrated tools for open
source databases to ensure their availability and performance. In the near term, various
vendors will introduce tools in the areas of migration, replication, archiving, and security.
Quest Software now offers its popular Toad tool on the MySQL platform to help both
administrators and developers. By 2007, the growth in database tools support should
largely eliminate the current deficit in support relative to commercial DBMS, which
inflates the cost of ownership of open source options.

THE CURRENT STATE OF OPEN SOURCE DATABASES IS HEALTHY

More enterprises are ready to commit to open source than ever before, and others are
extending their portfolio to support mission-critical applications. This year alone, two
new large vendors joined the open source database bandwagon: Computer Associates
with Ingres, and IBM with Cloudscape. The move to open source these databases has
certainly raised the bar on the quality, performance, and reliability of open source databases.

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 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age 9

We conducted a Forrester Wave™ evaluation of the five key open source database products,
namely Berkeley DB, Cloudscape, Ingres, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. We compared these
tools in a number of areas, including transactional capability, security, market presence,
and data warehousing capability, standards, and support (see Figure 2). Our findings:

· MySQL remains the most widely used but lacks some key features. MySQL
continues to have a very high adoption rate across several industries and is known
for its reliability, ease of use, and performance. It is a full, relational DBMS, and it
supports row-level locking and deadlock detection functionality. However, it lacks
some key DBMS features, such as triggers, stored procedures, and views, which are
likely to be available in Version 5. These features are likely to boost MySQL to even
higher adoption rates and may open doors for support for more packaged applications
and tools. At present, there are many large enterprises that run MySQL to support both
mission-critical and non-mission-critical applications.

“We have more than 20 MySQL production databases supporting our mission-critical
applications. Basically, we depend on it. MySQL is the back end for our Web site, which
gets more than 30 million hits a day. We are satisfied with the performance, availability,
and support with MySQL. Besides, it saves us lots of money over commercial DBMSes
like Oracle.” (Online community Web site)

Figure 2 Forrester Wave™: Open Source Databases, Q4 ’04

The spreadsheet detailing this Forrester Wave™ is available online.

Risky Strong
Bets Contenders Performers Leaders
Strong Market presence

Ingres
PostgreSQL
MySQL
Cloudscape
Berkeley DB
Current
offering

Weak
Weak Strategy Strong
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

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10 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age

“We use MySQL extensively in our environment. For our Web site, which has more
than 6 million unique visitors per month, we track all events created by user activity
and store the state and session in MySQL. We also use MySQL to track the emails
that we send out each week in a large data warehouse that has more than 300 million
rows. MySQL doesn’t have some of the advanced features that Oracle has, but it meets
our business requirements. Our application is mainly written in Java and some PHP/
Perl. The MySQL community is very active, so getting support and guidance has been
very effective. MySQL is easy and flexible to work with; we can get MySQL and our
application running very quickly.” (Entertainment company)

“We looked at MySQL and Oracle at the very beginning and found that MySQL was a lot
easier to configure, set up, and run, even though we had experience with Oracle. With
Oracle we often had to hire an outside consultant to come to help with administration;
with MySQL we never had to. MySQL has not only saved us money on licensing fees,
but it also made our databases easier to manage. Adopting MySQL has been one of the
better decisions that we have made. We do not see any limitations with MySQL DBMS
for our application.” (Online retailer)

“We have not changed the source code of MySQL for our application, but being able to
review it is incredibly valuable to us. It is a lot easier to troubleshoot with open source
than to go to commercial support all the time. We are always looking to deploy more
applications with MySQL because it’s easy to use, it’s flexible, and it saves us money.”
(Entertainment company)

· Ingres raises the bar for open source databases with expanded features. Ingres is the
most complete open source relational database. It has been around for more than two
decades and is well known to have advanced enterprise-class features and reliability
on par with many commercial DBMSes. CA recently made Ingres open source in an
effort to make Ingres more visible and grow CA’s services and tools business. With
Ingres going open source, the bar for features, functionality, and support is certainly
higher for open source databases. CA’s move to open source Ingres might trigger other,
smaller, commercial DBMS vendors to follow suit, especially for their slow-moving
database products.

“Ingres has been our primary database platform for the past 10 years. We have a large
subscription system that processes information about members who need to access
airport lounges across the world. This application is running on a Linux/Red Hat
environment. We wanted an enterprise database that was affordable to us; we invited
Oracle to give us a quote, and it was laughable. Ingres R3 is a lot easier to install and
use, and because it’s an open source product, more vendors are likely to offer plug-ins
into their tools and applications, which will broaden the market. With Ingres you get
an enterprise database at a very low cost.” (Travel services company)

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 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age 11

“We’ve deployed Ingres for several in-house applications, including for a report server.
We have been using Ingres for more than nine years, and we are pleased with its
performance, reliability, and enterprise-class functionality. Our report server, which
tracks information from various stores, is around 750 GB in size and growing. While
the number of users is not high with the report server, we load more than a million
transactions a day on it. We also use Ingres for the general ledger mission-critical
application that has close to 250 concurrent connections. Our business depends on
Ingres to support our critical applications.” (Retail company)

· IBM’s Cloudscape/Apache Derby remains a viable DBMS. Recently, IBM open

sourced Cloudscape RDBMS and contributed it to the Apache Software Foundation
(ASF) under the code-name Derby. Cloudscape is an embedded Java database
that supports SQL92 and parts of SQL99. It has a small footprint and requires no
administration. It was originally part of Informix’s product line; Informix was acquired
by IBM in 2001. Cloudscape has always been behind the scenes, having a very low
customer base and lack of visibility across the industry. However, open sourcing
Cloudscape might spur higher adoption and increased innovation. Besides Cloudscape,
other open source Java databases include Berkeley DB Java Edition from Sleepycat and
the less well-known McKoi SQL Database.

While there aren’t many customers using Cloudscape, IBM has used the technology
quite extensively to support more than 70 projects, including WebSphere, Tivoli, and
Lotus Workplace. For customers that outgrow Cloudscape/Derby and wish to upgrade,
IBM offers a full upgrade path to DB2. Potential uses of Cloudscape include support of
Java applications for data repositories, directory services, and Web-based applications.
Besides Java, Cloudscape also supports .NET programming environments using the
ODBC interface. IBM offers an optional 24x7 support for Cloudscape/Derby through
the IBM Cloudscape package.

· PostgreSQL has good features with moderate adoption. PostgreSQL and Ingres
share a family history; both were created by Michael Stonebraker and his grad students
at Berkeley. Because of this, PostgreSQL has strong enterprise DBMS features and
functionality. PostgreSQL is a full, relational DBMS with core transactional capability
like ACID properties and deadlock detection. It has many database features that are
essential for business applications, such as triggers, functions, BLOBs, and views. The
current version supports stored procedures using functions, but 100% SQL-syntax-
compatible stored procedures will be available in version 8.1.

“We are using PostgreSQL in production for our critical applications, including
running our Web site. PostgreSQL had all of the features and functionality that we
needed for our application, including embedded SQL and transactional capability. It
certainly has saved us money, besides giving us a high-quality database. The speed of

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12 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age

the PostgreSQL database has been phenomenal, besides being reliable and running
without any issues. The PostgreSQL Web site contains a lot of documentation and
FAQs that have been helpful.” (Entertainment company).

“We run real-time, mission-critical databases using PostgreSQL for our registry of Web
sites. PostgreSQL is the core of the application, and if it goes down, all registrations and
modification will cease. We found PostgreSQL very easy to administer; it conforms
to the best practices in the industry. PostgreSQL has a very rich set of tools that cover
broad areas from an end-user graphical tool to a command-line utility for experts.
PostgreSQL is a mature database; we run it every day supporting our mission-critical
applications. It has very good database features and supports high availability and
mission-critical usage.” (Internet company)

· Berkeley DB is widely used and well integrated with applications. Berkeley DB is

a developer database that is available as a C library or Java JAR file for easy integration
with applications. It comes in three flavors: Berkeley DB Java Edition, Berkeley DB, and
Berkeley DB XML. Key features include ACID properties to preserve transactional
integrity and automatic recovery after failures, concurrent access, deadlock detection
and resolution, and replication for high availability. While Berkeley DB supports many
enterprise-class features, it is not a relational database and does not support SQL.
Berkeley DB offers easy-to-use, programmatic APIs with language bindings for C, C++,
Java, Tcl, Perl, Python, and PHP.

“We have been using Sleepycat Berkeley DB for the past two years for our enterprise
software. Our applications are becoming more complex, with SAN storage and
complex hardware infrastructure. We use the Berkeley DB to share information among
various applications related to resources. Berkeley DB is a small, easy, and fast database
that is critical for our product. We did not need complex queries or complex databases;
we just needed a simple and easy-to-use database with no administration requirements,
and Berkeley DB delivered that. We hardly ever use Sleepycat’s support because of the
product’s reliability. Although we have looked at the source code, we haven’t felt the
need to modify it.” (Technology company)

THE FUTURE OF OPEN SOURCE DATABASES REMAINS BRIGHT

In the future, open source databases will continue to grow in adoption and will become
part of the overall DBMS strategy for all enterprises. More innovations in the areas of
automation, security, unstructured data management, availability, and integration will
come from open source databases. Future open source database trends will include:

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 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age 13

· Higher adoption and increased support for packaged applications. Open source
databases will continue to make inroads to enterprises that are looking for low-cost
DBMS alternatives in the future. We estimate that 30% of enterprises will be using
open source databases in production by 2008. More enterprise packaged applications,
such as ERP and CRM applications, will support open source databases over the next
two to three years.

· More features, automation, and innovation. In the near future, more open source
databases will support semistructured and unstructured data, along with advanced
data searching capability. Advanced automation of administrative tasks will roll out
in the areas of performance tuning, backup recovery, archiving, replication, patch
deployments, and upgrades. Some open source databases will lead in innovation to
offer highly advanced features for availability, performance, and reliability.

· Growing demand for robust, reliable, and cross-DBMS tools. As more enterprises
use open source databases for mission-critical deployments, the need for database
tools will grow. Enterprises will demand more cross-DBMS tools that support not only
their current portfolio of databases but also open source databases. More database
tools will be offered that will support high-end open source database deployments.

R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S

OPEN SOURCE DATABASES SHOULD BE PART OF YOUR DBMS STRATEGY

· Start with small deployments and then expand. Use open source databases for
small deployments initially to understand the product’s strengths, weaknesses, and
administration requirements before using them for larger applications.
· Join the open source community and contribute. Open source is all about the
community. Therefore, no matter which open source database you use, you should
have your administrators and developers join the community not only to understand
more about the product but also to actively contribute to it. However, when
contributing code, the company needs to develop procedures and ensure that none
of the company’s intellectual property is inadvertently lost to the community.
· Make sure you have visibility into source code. This can help when dealing with
complex applications. Given the complexity of open source database source code,
only a few enterprises modify it. However, having access to source code remains
helpful, especially when requiring tighter integration with any complex in-house
application or when dealing with large applications.

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14 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age

· Look for vendor support besides the community for critical applications. Many
vendors are offering highly improved 24x7 technical support coverage for open
source databases to meet the growing demand. Besides tapping the community
for support, enterprises should choose vendor support, especially when supporting
mission-critical database applications. Most vendors offer quick response for critical
issues, in addition to services around installation, tuning, and migrations.
· Plan for considerable effort for rip and replace, on top of high costs. Migrating a
DBMS to any product, whether commercial or open source, remains a complex effort,
especially for large applications. Ensure that planning is given utmost importance
when migrating. Also consider using tools that can help in the migration process, as
automation minimizes human errors.
· Standardize on one or two open source databases. Just as with commercial
DBMSes, firms should standardize on one or two key products to ensure lower cost,
manageability, and operational efficiency.
· Benchmark before deploying any large database. Most deployments of open
source databases are centered around small databases. To ensure performance and
scalability, consider benchmarking your application.

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 Tech Choices | Open Source Databases Come Of Age 15

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
Online Resource
The underlying spreadsheet detailing the Forrester Wave in Figure 2 is available online.
Companies Interviewed For This Document
BMC Software PostgreSQL
Computer Associates Quest Software
IBM Sleepy Cat Software
MySQL Sybase

ENDNOTES
1
Forrester surveyed 140 large companies in North America to find out their open source plans.
See the March 16, 2004, Trends “Open Source Moves Into The Mainstream.”
2
Open source is cheap to acquire, but the integration, maintenance, and support costs can add up,
therefore enterprises should proceed after careful analysis of the benefits. See the March 16, 2004,
Trends “Open Source Moves Into The Mainstream.”

© 2004, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited December 29, 2004

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Headquarters Research and Sales Offices

Forrester Research, Inc. Australia Japan
400 Technology Square Brazil Korea
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA Canada The Netherlands
Tel: +1 617/613-6000 France Sweden
Fax: +1 617/613-5000 Germany Switzerland
Email: [email protected] Hong Kong United Kingdom
Nasdaq symbol: FORR India United States
www.forrester.com Israel

For a complete list of worldwide locations,

visit www.forrester.com/about.

For information on hard-copy or electronic reprints, please contact the Client

Resource Center at +1 866/367-7378, +1 617/617-5730, or [email protected].
We offer quantity discounts and special pricing for academic and nonprofit institutions.

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