“Consider the immense volumes of data and storage that are used
by companies throughout the world, and you can see how important it
is to manage that information in a database form. The database,
software containing the data points, is usually a smaller part of
the whole Database Management System (DBMS). The majority of DBMS
coordinate retrieval and storage of data, configuration, security
and integrity of the database. When looking at open source
databases, one can readily find numerous independent components for
data management, but with heavyweights such as Oracle (NASD: ORCL)
and IBM (NYSE: IBM) continuing to throw their support behind Linux,
the commercialization of Linux-based DBMS opens up investment
opportunities. The basic concepts behind DBMS are relatively
simple, however, managing data in a large organization requires a
comprehensive set of tools.”
“Gartner Group’s Dataquest analysts predict the worldwide
database industry to reach $12.7 billion by 2004. This market will
be driven by Internet-related applications, electronic commerce,
content management, integrated business intelligence, and new
mobile consumer and business applications. Currently there are
about two-dozen open source relational database management systems
(RDBMS) for Linux. The popularity and demand for Linux RDBMS’s are
weak. Even enterprises that have no hesitation about using Linux,
often defer when it comes to open source RDBMS. The reason is a
combination of uncertainty about the capabilities of open source
products and fear of inadequate support. It is hard to find the
same confidence in open source databases as it is with other open
source products. Despite all this there is an emerging feeling that
open source database products are good enough and allow
organizations to have all the functionality of a relational
database at the lowest possible cost. As a result of this, open
source databases are becoming a growing phenomenon.”
“From a corporate standpoint, most of the large database
software firms have ported their products to Linux. Powerful
database management applications are a necessary cornerstone for an
operating system to succeed in corporate environments.“