In my last post, I forgot to mention another MySQL related Sun Blueprints™ that was recently published: MySQL Guide for Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage Systems by Bill Aiken and Krishnan Shankar.  MySQL and the Sun Storage 7000 is a great marriage because it delivers good performance, low cost, combined with ease of management.   Configuring system I/O can be a complex and frustrating task even for experienced systems administrators.   Start ups and smaller companies using MySQL typically just don't have the skill or time to tune the I/O interface of their database.   Here the …

In my last post, I forgot to mention another MySQL related Sun Blueprints™ that was recently published: MySQL Guide for Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage Systems by Bill Aiken and Krishnan Shankar.  MySQL and the Sun Storage 7000 is a great marriage because it delivers good performance, low cost, combined with ease of management.   Configuring system I/O can be a complex and frustrating task even for experienced systems administrators.   Start ups and smaller companies using MySQL typically just don't have the skill or time to tune the I/O interface of their database.   Here the …

There are a couple of bookstores in my neighborhood. They could not be more different from one another.

The first is known to focus on best seller lists, to promote popular books, and use displays and traditional retail techniques to drive business. They seem to do well, year in, year out. The other bookstore is more of a community treasure, beloved by the neighborhood, with a focus on the (thoughtful) insights of their staff. Those insights are delivered via small note cards appended to shelving throughout the store, where books are displayed alphabetically, with library-like neutrality.

The first store is very market focused, changes with the season, and seems to be quite succesful. The latter store, beloved though it may be, struggles to stay in business.

Now you might consider that an awkward …

The bursting of the internet bubble was good for the computer industry.

Many of us didn't like the medicine, but I can't remember a single customer upset at the idea of paying $20,000 for computing infrastructure that used to cost them $100,000. The price compression came from open source software, and a move toward general purpose servers, and resulted in companies formerly making 65% gross profit on products (Sun among them) facing a new reality.

But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Since then, Sun's built the biggest open source software business around (see this report for details), from platform software to application infrastructure (even a …