Until some time ago, open-source code was considered unreliable by many. It was often felt that the code used in open-source software had been knocked together by someone working part-time and not by a professional programmer. It was thought that the software might be a bit gappy in terms of the features and facilities offered and in terms of security. But those days have long gone. Open-source software has been around for a long time – MySQL first appeared in 1995.
According to StatistaOpens a new window ‘s ranking of the most popular database management systems worldwide as of June 2021, Oracle, a proprietary system, was the highest, closely followed by MySQL. Microsoft SQL Server (again proprietary), PostgresSQL, and MongoDB occupied third, fourth, and fifth places, respectively. This shows how the acceptance of open-source software has grown over the years to be on par with proprietary software today.
Perona ranked the most popular open-source databases in 2020 Opens a new window in the following order:
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL (45%)
- Redis (40%)
- MariaDB (39%)
- ElasticSearch (39%)
- MongoDB (38%)
- Kafka (15%)
A TrustRadius review of open-source databases found that the top three customer satisfaction ratings were PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB. Again, these two surveys show the popularity of open-source databases.
Learn more: Open Data: A Catalyst for Driving Innovation in Finance and HealthcareÂ
What Makes Open-Source Database Popular
The defining characteristic of open-source databases is that users receive the source code for the program as well as the database. Clearly, with proprietary databases, users never see the source code. And, because users have access to the source code, they can make any changes to it that they think will make the database perform better for them. They can run the software at any time they want and on any software that they want. There’s absolutely no lock-in of any kind. Also, the license to use the software is traditionally free.
So, how do companies supplying the open-source software make any money? Most companies using the software don’t have a great deal of in-house expertise, which means they probably aren’t enhancing the code themselves. Typically, they buy support from the supplier. The alternative is to employ staff with an in-depth knowledge of the open-source software who can exploit its features and add new ones, as required.
One major reason that makes open-source software so popular is that as new business models emerge, there’s more likely to be open-source software available to exploit these new business opportunities than there is to be a proprietary product available.
In addition, open-source databases are probably as mature as the proprietary versions, which means that all the facilities and features that most people require are already part of the product. In addition, users can customize their open-source database, which makes them very flexible to use.
And, of course, there is a massive community of users – certainly for the most popular open-source products. That means there are often YouTube training videos available, as well as a wide range of documentation. In addition, there are often forums where people can ask questions and experts can answer them.
For users of open-source databases, the fact that the product may be free is a big plus point. It takes away the cost associated with proprietary databases and takes away the need, from time to time, to negotiate when the supplier makes a price increase. Set against that, there is the cost of employing experienced staff or buying support from the supplier, but that makes expenditure more predictable for many sites.
The earliest open-source databases used SQL and were straightforward key-value databases, for example, MySQL and PostgreSQL. Illustrating the flexibility of open source, we now have databases that store document information (e.g. MongoDB and Couchbase) and wide-column (e.g. Cassandra and HBase) databases, which can be used to analyze large data sets. Internet of Things (IoT) devices produce vast amounts of data, and so does social media. This needs a way to be analyzed and so open-source databases can be used to do that, whereas traditional databases can’t.
Sometimes people talk about NoSQL databases. These are less structured and more flexible than SQL databases and don’t use tabular relationships. These are the document information and broad column types of database mentioned above.
Learn more: 4 Reasons Why Data Virtualization Might Not Solve Your Migration ProblemÂ
Cloud Providers vs. Open-Source Database Suppliers
It is no surprise that if organizations want to use open-source databases, they will also want to use them in the Cloud, and companies like Amazon are making that happen. Amazon web services (AWS) claim that “AWS Database services make it easy to manage open-source database workloads in the cloud with performance, scalability, and availabilityâ€. They offer MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Redis, among others.
The Microsoft Azure cloud supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, and others. And Google, DigitalOcean, Rackspace, and other public cloud suppliers support a range of open-source databases. And that all sounds great for users.
Many of these public cloud providers are offering to install and maintain open-source databases, which can be quite a difficult job, but they can automate. While this sounds very helpful to the users, it has caused some irritation to the open-source database suppliers because it was one way that they had previously raised income from users of their products. Particularly upset are MongDB and Elastic.
In their fightback, Elastic is using a more restrictive set of licenses. MongoDB has already moved to a more restrictive license, the Server Side Public License (SSPL). This applies restrictions on cloud providers that aren’t its partners. The standard license is a General Public Licence (GPL).
Amazon’s response to Elastic’s comments is that it will ‘fork’ the code for Elastic. Forking is quite a common term and means that a company or person will take the latest version of an open-source product and use that. They will then be responsible for any updates to their version of the code. For Amazon, that will be the version that they sell to people using their public cloud. Another example is MariaDB, which was originally a fork of MySQL, and the two products remain very similar.
Learn more: The Importance of Ensuring Data Integrity in the Modern Day EnterpriseÂ
Open Source by Vendors
The company Oracle, which supplies the Oracle database, also provides the open-source database, MySQL! MySQL originated in Sweden in 1995 and was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008. Oracle acquired Sun in 2010 and got MySQL as part of the deal. It has continued to develop the product, and MySQL Server Version 8.0 was announced in 2018. MySQL is, by far, the most popular open-source database in use at this time. It is used by high-profile social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Other proprietary database vendors don’t offer an open-source alternative.
Bottomline
Open-source databases have been growing in popularity since the arrival of MySQL in the 1990s. They offer organizations a range of choices – far more than from proprietary database suppliers – that can meet the specific needs for a database faced by any organization. Not all open-source databases use SQL, and that can often be a great advantage. In addition, as new business opportunities arise, open-source databases are usually quick to provide a way to exploit that opportunity.
Their movement into the mainstream has seen a considerable increase in their use over time. The availability of open-source databases in public cloud environments will see their usage grow even more in the future.
Do you think the future of database management lies with open source tools? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!