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Sun opens up on the limits of MySQL Enterprise Unlimited

, February 27, 2008 @ 4:41 am ET

UPDATED – As you can see from the comments on this, the change is not Sun limiting Enterprise Unlimited, but being being more open about the limits. Kudos to Sun for doing so – UPDATED.

Sun Microsystems has announced the completion of its acquisition of MySQL – “the most important acquisition in the modern software industry” according to Jonathan Schwartz – and that MySQL’s open souirce database is now backed by Sun’s “17,000-strong global sales and services organization and its extensive international network of authorized distribution channels”.

The company has also confirmed that MySQL Enterprise Unlimited, the site-wide agreement introduced in January last year that provides unlimited use of MySQL Enterprise for $40,000, the same price Oracle charges per CPU for Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, is only available to companies with 400 employees or less.

MySQL Enterprise Unlimited is proof of the open source model’s ability to disrupt a market but also effectively places a cap on the revenue MySQL – and now Sun – can earn per customer. Given that Sun is aiming to grow adoption of MySQL among its biggest customers it is no great surprise to see that Sun is apparently exploring introducing further pricing bands for larger companies.

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Comments (4) Categories: Licensing,Software

4 Responses to “Sun opens up on the limits of MySQL Enterprise Unlimited”

  1. John Smith says:
    February 27, 2008 at 5:37 am

    I’m sorry but you are wrong about the unlimited offer. Such limitations were also present in original MySQL’s Enteprise Offer.

    Best regards

  2. Ronald Bradford says:
    February 27, 2008 at 9:30 am

    Hi Matt,

    I just also wanted to confirm, this limitation was in place prior the Sun Acquisition.

  3. Boycott Novell » MySQL’s Slight Changes to Business Plan After Sun’s Acquisition says:
    February 27, 2008 at 10:33 am

    [...] We have recently seen a good share of criticisms of Sun Microsystems, but they probably deserve trust (or the benefit of the doubt) where they have not caused any harm. Here is an interesting new observation which is made by Matt Aslett now that the acquisition of MySQL has been finalised: [...]

  4. Le acquisizioni ed il business model del mondo Open Source | PettiNix says:
    March 3, 2008 at 5:34 am

    [...] Se è la sezione economica della CNN a parlarne allora i fatti assumono un aspetto rilevante, cosa spinge una grande azienda ad acquistarne un’altra che sviluppa in OpenSource? L’acquisto di MySQL da parte di SUN per 1 miliardo di dollari ha suscitato interesse e perplessità, come riportato da The 451 Group MySQL è uno dei progetti Open Source più conosciuti al mondo e l’operazione è una delle più significanti di sempre. Prima operazione a livello monetario, almeno per quanto riguarda le aziende che si occupano di Open Source, ancor di più di quella che riguardò l’acquisto di Cygnus Solutions da parte di Red Hat, per cui furono investiti 675 milioni di dollari. L’obiettivo di SUN è sicuramente quello di espandere il proprio parco installazioni, competere nel mercato LAMP in cui MySQL ha il monopolio dei DBMS, e avere un nuovo prodotto, già diffusissimo, nella proprioa offerta. tutto ciò naturalmente oltre agli introiti che arriveranno nelle casse di SUN, nel 2007 è stato stimato un incasso da parte di MySQL AB di circa 40 milioni di dollari e nel 2008 si prevede che l’incasso sarà di circa 70 milioni di dollari. Intanto SUN ha già cambiato la politica di licenze per MySQL Enterprise. [...]