Time really flies. A bit less than 4 months ago, I wrote a post about my decision to join ScaleDB. Today, after 4 months and a lot of excitement working with a great team and genuinely good people, I am proud to announce that the first version of ScaleDB is available to the public.
ScaleDB 15.10 Ararat We decided to number this version 15.10 and to name it Ararat. Indeed, we intend to follow the release cycle of other famous software projects, such as Ubuntu, OpenStack and recently CentOS. Our logo is a peak, we are all about scaling, as in our name and as the main objective of our products.

To scale comes from the Latin word scandere, i.e. …

Percona Live Europe is now more than a week away. l left Amsterdam with a positive thought: it has been the best European event for MySQL so far. Maybe the reason is that I saw the attendance increasing, or maybe it was the quality of the talks, or because I heard others making the same comment, and I also saw a reinvigorated MySQL ecosystem.
There are three main aspects I want to highlight.

1. MySQL 5.7 and the strong presence of the Oracle/MySQL team
There have been good talks and keynotes on MySQL 5.7. It is a sign of the strong commitment of Oracle towards MySQL. I think there is an even more important point. The most interesting features in 5.7 and the projects still in MySQL Labs derive or are in some way inspired by features available from other vendors. Some examples:

• The JSON datatype from …

A few months ago I updated my profile on LinkedIN, and adjusted my position as CTO and founder of Athoa Ltd, a British company currently active for translation services and events that in the past hosted a couple of interesting open source projects. I simply forgot to disable the email notification to my connections, set by default, and in 2-3 hours I received tens of messages from friends and ex-colleagues who were curious to hear about my new adventure.

Today, I changed my profile on LinkedIN again and have left the email notification set on purpose.

As of today, I join the team at ScaleDB. My role is to define the product and the strategy for the company, working closely with CEO Tom Arthur, CTO …

Everybody loves free. It is the best marketing term one could use. Once you say “FREE” the people come running. Free makes you very popular. Whether you are a politician offering something for free, or a company providing free stuff, you gain instant popularity.

Xeround is shutting down their MySQL Database as a Service (DBaaS) because their free instances, while popular, simply did not convert into sufficient paid instances to support the company. While I am sad to see them fail, because I appreciate the hard work required to deliver database technology, this announcement was not unexpected.
My company was at Percona Live, the MySQL conference, and I had some additional conversations along these same lines. One previously closed source company announced that they were open sourcing their code, it was a very …

Everybody loves free. It is the best marketing term one could use. Once you say “FREE” the people come running. Free makes you very popular. Whether you are a politician offering something for free, or a company providing free stuff, you gain instant popularity.

Xeround is shutting down their MySQL Database as a Service (DBaaS) because their free instances, while popular, simply did not convert into sufficient paid instances to support the company. While I am sad to see them fail, because I appreciate the hard work required to deliver database technology, this announcement was not unexpected. My company was at Percona Live, the MySQL conference, and I had some additional conversations along these same lines. One previously closed source company announced that they were open sourcing their code, it was a very popular …

Fedora confirms MariaDB plans. IBM acquires Star Analytics. And more

For 451 clients: Metamarkets hones analytic focus on digital media, takes in-memory engine open source bit.ly/VElDqs By Krishna Roy

— Matt Aslett (@maslett) February 4, 2013

For 451 Research clients: WANdisco prepares to bring active-active replication to Hadoop bit.ly/VElEL9

— Matt Aslett (@maslett) February 4, 2013

For 451 Research clients: ScaleDB returns with database-virtualization play for MySQL bit.ly/XXt7zO

— Matt Aslett (@maslett) …

This is a response to a blog postby analyst and marketing consultant Curt Monash.

Originally virtualization meant running one operating system in a window inside of another operating system, e.g. running a Linux on a Windows machine using Microsoft Virtual PC or VMWare. Then virtualization evolved to mean slicing a single server into many for more granular resource allocation (Curt’s ex uno plures, translated: out of one, many). It has since expanded to include e pluribus unum (from many, one) and e pluribus ad pluribus (from many to many). This is evidenced in the use of the term “virtualization” to create the compound words: server virtualization, storage virtualization, network virtualization and now database virtualization.

Server Virtualization: Abstracts the physical …

This is a response to a blog postby analyst and marketing consultant Curt Monash.

Originally virtualization meant running one operating system in a window inside of another operating system, e.g. running a Linux on a Windows machine using Microsoft Virtual PC or VMWare. Then virtualization evolved to mean slicing a single server into many for more granular resource allocation (Curt’s ex uno plures, translated: out of one, many). It has since expanded to include e pluribus unum (from many, one) and e pluribus ad pluribus (from many to many). This is evidenced in the use of the term “virtualization” to create the compound words: server virtualization, storage virtualization, network virtualization and now database virtualization.

Server Virtualization: Abstracts the physical (servers), presenting it as a …

Are you looking to expand your knowledge about MySQL and MariaDB database solutions?

Well, you’re in luck! SkySQL is introducing an exclusive collection of educational videos featuring some of the industry’s leading experts on the MySQL database and related technologies. View informative, technical talks on a variety of topics, from the experts at SkySQL, MariaDB, Calpont InfiniDB, Continuent, ScaleDB, Severalnines, Sphinx, Webyog, and others.

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First of all, I wish you a happy new year.
Many things happened last year, it was really exciting to be involved in the MySQL ecosystem.
I hope this enthusiasm will be increased this year, up to you !

To start the year, I propose the MySQL[plus] Awards 2011
It will only take 5 minutes to fill out these polls.
Answer with your heart first and then with your experience with some of these tools or services.

Polls will be closed January 31, so, vote now !
For “other” answers, please,  let me a comment with details.

Don’t hesitate to submit proposal for tools or services in the comments.
And, please, share these polls !

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, …