Looking to boost NetWare as a Web services platform, the MySQL database is to be included with NetWare 6, providing a data management platform for applications running on Novell’s core platform, Novell and MySQL will announce on Monday. The database also is being bundled with Hyperion Essbase, according to MySQL.
Novell Inc. will embed the commercial version of MySQL, enabling developers to build applications without requiring use of the restrictive General Public License agreement, as is required of the open-source version of MySQL.
“This opens up NetWare as a good Web platform,” said Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, in Uppsala, Sweden. Developers can, for example, build a Web site with a database providing dynamic content on NetWare, according to Mickos.
The combination of NetWare and MySQL provides for a Web services deployment platform around J2EE, according to Novell. MySQL for NetWare along with Apache, PHP, and Perl creates a set of development tools for NetWare users, who can run thousands of applications written for MySQL on other platforms on NetWare 6 servers, the company said.
Novell officials said the company in putting the database on NetWare is attempting to provide a comprehensive environment for open-source applications.
“We think this is going to be a really compelling story for developers because it gives them a state-of-the-art environment to build their applications,” said Ed Anderson, Novell director of product management for NetWare and GroupWise, in Provo, Utah.
MySQL becomes a data store for dynamically populating Web pages, working with scripts such as PHP, said Jim Abbott, Novell product manager for Web services at Novell. MySQL also can support the Silverstream tools products Novell has acquired.
MySQL has positioned its database as a low-cost, no-frills alternative to complex, enterprise-level databases such as Oracle. Novell still is trying to determine the role that Pervasive.SQL (formerly known as Btrieve), which has acted as a supporting database for NetWare, will play going forward in light of the agreement with MySQL, Anderson said.
“We’re in negotiations with Pervasive [Software] to determine what the future of [Pervasive.SQL on NetWare] might be,” he said.
Novell’s embracing of MySQL provides users with an alternative to the Pervasive.SQL platform, which is slipping, according to analyst Stacey Quandt, of Giga Information Group, in Santa Clara, Calif.
“For Novell customers, it gives them an alternative database to use with their product that’s integrated,” Quandt said. “I think it fills a hole for customers,” she added.
A Pervasive Software official said the company’s relationship with Novell is continuing. The official, Stephen Slezak, product manager for Pervasive.SQL, in Austin, Tex., said he expected the database would continue to be included with NetWare.
“My gut feeling is [a discontinuation] will not happen because we offer a very fast, high-performance transactional interface in the form of Btrieve API,” Slezak said. He also denied that the database is slipping, saying the company has had seven consecutive quarters of profit and growth.
Hyperion also plans to ship MySQL in its Essbase business intelligence software, according to MySQL.
An upcoming release of MySQL, Version 5, will support database triggers and stored procedures, Mickos said.
