Why an Organization Might Select MySQL Over Oracle or SQL Server - Essay Example

Why an Organization Might Select MySQL Over Oracle or SQL Server Why an Organization Might Select MySQL Over Oracle or SQL Server Introduction Adatabase is a collection of information, organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed and updated. In computing, databases are sometimes classified according to their organization approach. The most common approach is the relational database, a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can be reorganized and accessed in a number of different ways. Distributed database is one that can be dispersed or replicated among other points in a network. Object-oriented database is one that is congruent with the data defined in object classes and subclasses. Computer databases usually contain aggregations of data records or files. There are various large-scale database platforms. This essay will focus on MySQL, SQL server, and Oracle, discuss on why an organization might prefer MySQL over SQL server or Oracle. Since the introduction of relational database management systems (RDBMS) in the 1980s, they have become the standard database types for a variety of industries. As their names implies, these systems are based on the relational model that organizes data into groups of tables called relations. The three popular RDBMS are MySQL, Oracle, and SQL server. The table below (Table 1) contains a summary of their feature comparison. Table 1. Feature Oracle MySQL SQL Server Interface GUI, SQL SQL GUI,SQL , Various Language support Many, Including C, C#, C++, Java, Ruby, and objective C Many including C,C#,C++, D, Java, Ruby, and Objective C Java, Ruby, Python, VB, .Net and PHP Operating System Windows, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, OS X, z/OS, AIX Windows , Linux, OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris Windows Licensing proprietary Open source Proprietary Oracle IBM was the first company to develop a RDBMS, however, Oracle Corporation made history in 1980 by releasing its RDBMS, Oracle, for commercial use (Tutorialpoint, 2015). It later released a version of its system for IBM computers. Since its exhibition to the RDBMS market, oracle has consistently led the way. According to Gartner, Oracle owned nearly 50% of the RDBMS market in 2011. In addition to opening up the commercial market for RDBMS, the Oracle Corporation also was the first company to develop a commercial-level version of SQL that was designed to manipulate data in a RDBMS using (at that time) queries and joins. Features The first “real” release of the Oracle RDBMS was oracle 2. This system supported only SQL features, and it was written in an assembly language. The following year, and for the next 10 years or so, oracle corporation released updates to it’s to the flagship database. Probably one of the reasons the Oracle RDBMS has managed to remain at the top of mighty RDBMS is linked to product updates that are closely tied to changes in the market. Database buzzwords such as “scalable”, “programmable’, “distributed”, and “portable” are also tied to oracle release. For example, in 1985 support for client-server model was added in anticipation of a growing acceptance of network communication. As the internet paved the way for the Digital Era, the Oracle RDBMS was updated to include a native Java virtual machine (JVM). Oracle Database 12c is the most recent release of the RDBMS. Its features includes: introduction of Oracle Advanced Analytics platforms, new data redaction to enhance sensitive data security, new handling for archiving Flash Data Archive (FDA), support for data pump for database consolidation, advanced network compression to enhance performance, support for integrating with operating system processor groups, several enhancement to Oracle Application Express, a rapid development tool that enables the users to create web applications using SQL and PL/SQL. SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server entered the RDBMS market in the mid 1990s as serious competitor when Microsoft purchased it from Sybase, and released version 7.0. In 2000, Microsoft released SQL Server 2000, and has attempted to enhance SQL server to keep up with the changing technology. SQL Server 2004 is an example, which has new major feature to support eXtensible Markup Language (XML) data. SQL Server 2012 was proclaimed as the last release that includes native support of OLE. SQL Server 2014 is the latest release of SQL Server and includes features like; introduction of In- Memory Online Traction Processing (OLTP), which allows sophisticated database management to enhance performance, updated version of SQL Server Data Tools for Business Intelligence (SSDTBI) and new solutions to handle disaster recovery. MySQL There are two unique aspects of MySQL compared to Oracle and SQL server: it was not originally developed for commercial use and it is an open source database. It was a coincidence as the individuals who developed it started out trying to us mSQL to interface with the database tables, and decided to develop a much more powerful interface. MySQL in its initial phase used an API controlled from mSQL. This increased speed significantly. Another difference of MySQL platform compared to Oracle and SQL Server is that it is open source. The digital Age spawned a movement in software development collaboration that has flowered into a competitive market for database and other software. The ownership of MySQL has moved the product’s humble beginning especially in 2008 when Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL AB, and in 2010 when Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems. The most notable changes to MySQL were in 2010, the enhancement to this release included semi synchronous replication, custom partitioning, improved support for SMP and updates to the InnoDBI/O subsystem. If an organization has to use MySQL, the following are the requirements (Tutorialpoint, 2015): ACID-compliant transactions, with nested transactions, commit/rollbacks, and full referential integrity. Very denormalized data model that is well served by Codd-date relational design, and one where join operations cannot be avoided. Data is primarily structured with little or no unstructured or semi-structured data being present Low to moderate data volumes. Telco applications that require use of main memory solutions and whose data is primarily accessed via primary keys. Scale out architectures that are primarily read in nature, with no need to write multiple masters or servers that exist in different cloud zones. No requirement for single database/cluster to span many different data centers. Conclusion Oracle and SQL Server are considered tools that favor users with large enterprise systems, while MySQL is considered a tool that appeals most often individuals interested in managing databases associated with their websites. This comparison shows just how close the databases are in the three key areas. Considering an organization’s unique situations, this is probably more relevant for deciding which one to implement than determining which one is the best. References Tutorialpoint(2014). SQL Rdbms Databases. Derived from http://www.tutorialspoint.com/sql/sql-databases.htm Microsoft (2015).SQL Server Edition; SQL server and Data Platform. Retrieved from. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/sql-server-editions/ Read More