In past few quarters Zmanda has been growing at a break-neck pace. This has transformed us in many different ways. In the past 12 months, we have almost quadrupled our customer base (which is now in 40 countries!), introduced our third product line (Zmanda Internet Backup) and built new relationships with some of the leading IT infrastructure providers in the world.

These changes merit a fresh introduction. Some of you have openly wondered about who we are. Well, here is your chance to hear directly from us. Join us for a webinar on December 17th at 10AM (Pacific Time), titled: …

As discussed previously in Options using MySQL pairs I have started evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of various open source options. This is an evaluation of Flipper, a product from Proven Scaling a MySQL consulting organization.

Overall

• Pros When correctly configured and with a working installation it just works, simple and functional, which is good design.
• Cons The functionality is incomplete especially when it comes to edge cases, additional manual scripting especially for MySQL specifics is necessary and could have be easily added.

The …

The Android Dev Phone 1 is completely open. What impact will it have on the typical mobile user? READ MORE

If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll know that
for the past decade I've had a love-hate relation ship with Sun.

Sun has done a lot of good things in their open source journey such as MySQL, openOffice , Virtualbox and opensourcing Java. But on the other hand they had troubles with creating really organic opensource.

I've always wondered why a company that bought StarDivision because it was cheaper than buying the MS Office license keeps wasting money on building it's own operating systems, albeit in a pretty open model, but with zero to no relevant community.

Yes I've ranted on their marketing boys and girls when they polluted forums I liked. But no I don't want this to happen. (Slicing up Sun)

However I`m in fear it actually might happen, the funny thing is that I already mentioned the same idea in offline conversations …

As open source vendors restrict features to their enterprise products, are the development-related benefits of the OSS business model retained? READ MORE

The latest report from DBMS guru Donald Feinberg on open source database growth. READ MORE

Startups are increasing their use of open source products in some shape or fashion. Can we correlate these actions with the demise of the traditional software business model? READ MORE

A Microsoft veteran believes that open source is the future of software. Why is this news? READ MORE

BusinessWeek declares the open source model is broken. Or did Stuart Cohen miss out on the fact that companies are already making and saving money with open source? READ MORE

Perfect is the enemy of good enough. This is fertile soil for why people choose to use the simpler, functional, cheaper open source cousins of proprietary feature function behemoths. Don’t get me wrong - too few features / crappy performance you lose customers because you’re not helping people solve problems if you lack too many features.

Recently, I observed a thread at the blog of Goban Saor entitled “Open Source Metrics.”

It basically has turned into a discussion which keeps creeping up about which tool is faster: Talend or Kettle. Which leads me to ask the question: Who Friggin’ Cares?

I’m a Kettle Expert so I think Kettle is Wicked Fast.
If I were a Talend Expert I’d think Talend is Wicked Fast.

Performance for customers who are focused on results, and aren’t …