Ingres criticises Oracle investment strategy for MySQL

Oracle release of MySQL 7.1 investment strategy draws immediate criticism from rival Ingres

Oracle says new cluster release demonstrates MySQL investment strategy

Oracle has announced version 7.1 of its MySQL Cluster technology, which it said demonstrates its investment in MySQL development.

However, database competitor Ingres said there were problems with Oracle’s MySQL strategy.

Ingres chief executive Roger Burkhardt said, “Oracle has already cut back the MySQL road map to avoid competing with its own database management system.”

He continued, “MySQL lacks the enterprise-grade strength and features required to actually run Oracle's own applications in production and it won't add these capabilities.”

Burkhardt’s opinion was that Oracle would try to attract MySQL developers onto a path to costly proprietary software and vendor lock-in.

“We also noticed that MySQL's migration tools came down [off the web site] before the acquisition closed – a very bad sign for the future of the technology,” pointed out Burkhardt.

MySQL Cluster 7.1 introduces a new cluster manager component which Oracle said “simplifies and automates the management of the MySQL Cluster database, enabling database administrators to respond quickly to changing market conditions and stringent service level agreements.”

Oracle said it was also providing a new MySQL Cluster Connector for Java, to help “accelerate development cycles and time to market, and enabling higher throughput and lower latency for Java-based services”.

Oracle acquired the MySQL technology after its EU-contested acquisition of enterprise hardware and Java guardian Sun earlier this year.