Interview: Marten Mickos, CEO, MySQL

Open source and Software as a Service are an "architectural match" according to the CEO of open source database firm MySQL. With SaaS' runaway success and the amount of senior level attention that open source is attracting, it's no wonder that Mickos is smiling.

By Stuart Lauchlan, news and analysis editor

In the applications business there are two enfants terrible – open source and Software as a Service (SaaS). The latter has made more noise and attracted more mainstream attention, but the former is also becoming a viable option for ever more firms. In fact, the two can be seen as neatly complementary movements.

“Every single part of the software industry should go hand in hand with open source,” argues Marten Mickos, CEO of open source database firm MySQL. “SaaS and open source are an architectural match. We were designed for the online world, we are the only database that grew up in the online world. All of the others were designed for offline use. We are a very good fit for on-demand.”

"SaaS and open source are an architectural match. We were designed for the online world, we are the only database that grew up in the online world. All of the others were designed for offline use." Marten Mickos, CEO, MySQL

Indeed, there are some on-demand firms such as RightNow and Workday that use MySQL to underpin their offerings, although market leader Salesforce.com relies on traditional relational technology from Oracle – however, Mickos argues that CEO Marc Benioff has admitted that if the firm had started up a few years later than it did then he would have looked at using open source databases.

But the choice of database is not the critical factor in the success of Salesforce.com, reckons Mickos. “That has less to do with technology and more to do with Marc Benioff,” he says.

“That company would be successful if he ran some old DB2 databases. And customers can be very conservative. SAP has certified IBM and Microsoft databases, but 70 percent of its customers still run on Oracle. That's just the way it works. It's more convenient to just continue. So we're not concerned with getting SAP certification. We're targetting new firms. SaaS growth is around 36 percent per annum, ERP is around 2 percent – we get to stay on the leading edge.

“There are five markets in which we want to be the leader – the web, on-demand, enterprise 2.0, telco and the embedded market. In the on demand space there's only Oracle as a credible player and they have the two market leaders in the SaaS game in the shape of Salesforce.com and NetSuite. Microsoft has no role in SaaS, not does IBM or Sybase. So we are already ahead of the next three players after Oracle. Give us a few years and we'll get the message out there.”

Bridging the gap

However, some would suggest that this could only make MySQL a prime takeover target. Mickos is unconvinced. “There is a general trend of consolidation in the software industry, but it's happening in the old world,” he argues. “It's not happening yet in our focused markets. Oracle might buy SaaS vendors, but not yet. It's made 42 acquisitions in 45 months, but all of them have been traditional software firms like Siebel and PeopleSoft. The online world is entirely new territory.”

But while an increasing number of SaaS implementations are now strategic decsions, MySQL still tends to get into the enterprise through the back door. “Sneak in is our go-to-market movement,” chuckles Mickos, but adds that open source is getting senior level attention.

“At the highest levels in some companies there is a good understanding of open source. CEOs and CFOs are instructing their people to use open source. We also have attention at the developer level. What we need to do is to bridge the gap between them, to communicate with the middle layer who aren't quite there yet.

“We are mostly used in new deployments. Our biggest competitor is ourselves. The two companies that we meet the most are Oracle and Microsoft. When we compete with Oracle it's not in the biggest contracts, we're not competing for an ERP implementation at BP. We see them in some deals where there's a SaaS element. With Microsoft, we meet them in smaller companies and where the competition is happening at the operating system level. If they customer says they want one person on Linux, then you can't use SQL Server, of course.”

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