03.25.08
EnterpriseDB just raised $10M in Series C financing. IBM joined the list of investors including Fidelity Ventures, Valhalla Partners and Charles River Ventures. To date, EnterpriseDB has raised $37.5M (compared to the $39M that MySQL had raised in total after Series C).
EnterpriseDB uses the slogan “The Oracle-compatible database company”. While I wish Andy and the folks at EnterpriseDB the best, the challenge is that Oracle’s high end products aren’t in danger of losing to OSS competition. Next, in the majority of Oracle deals, Oracle isn’t selling a database anymore. They are selling a database, an application server, tools and applications in a joint fashion. It’s difficult for vendors to compete unless they can offer, or partner to offer, the equivalent products. This is bad news for smaller ISVs, especially smaller/regional application ISVs.
EnterpriseDB does have an opportunity to compete, and win, against Oracle in deals where the customer just needs a standalone database (and not all the other Oracle products) that can be utilized with their existing Oracle sills. This isn’t new news to Andy and team. I’m sure some of the new funding will be used to compete with Oracle in this market segment.
I just realized that EnterpriseDB is also targeting MySQL users (news to me!):
“MySQL users know firsthand that MySQL is most effective for read-only environments and the web/edge tier - but not for applications in demanding OLTP environments, requiring enterprise-class reliability, availability, and scalability.
In fact, some EnterpriseDB clients continue to run MySQL databases for less demanding applications and turn to us where they’ve “hit a wall” with MySQL. “
I find this quite interesting, and very much in line with what I’ve experienced. No one product is right for ever customer project. Also, a product may be right when you start the project, but it may not be appropriate a year or two down the road.
What do you think, does EnterpriseDB have a brighter future by targeting Oracle users that want “Oracle like features for MySQL prices” or by targeting MySQL users who have “hit the wall”?
03.26.08 at 6:39 am
Very nice to know that! When Sun bought MySql I asked myself: “When is someone going to buy Postgresql?”.
Although this is a much different investment than MySql’s acquisition, it makes me happy to know Postgres is gaining some ground too.
I first used Postgres in early 2003, and I always considered it better than MySql. The main reason why Postgres lost ground to MySql was the fact that it didn’t have a native Windows installer until version 8.0, released only in early 2005. MySql had much less features and robustness, but since it was easy for developers using Windows to use it, the adoption increased very fast.
I still think Postgres is better than MySql, and it’s my preferred database for projects I have the freedom to choose. I hope they continue developing the product and get more investments. They deserve a very good place in the database field, and I hope they get as successful as MySql.
Regards,
Bruno Pereira
03.26.08 at 6:54 am
Also, something else came to my mind. If stack consolidation is the trend, would it make sense for Red Hat to buy EnterpriseDB and maybe Oracle buy a Linux Distribution?
Sun currently has the full stack, going from OS to Java EE Middleware, adding the database too. IBM doesn’t really sell OS anymore (as far as I know), but strongly supports Linux and has the database and the Java EE Middleware.
Oracle has everything but the OS. Red Hat has everything but the database. Both made relevant acquisitions in the recent past. Will we see them completing the stack anytime soon? I’d like to know that. Would be very interesting to see how the market goes after such movements.
03.27.08 at 6:25 am
[...] investe US$ 10 mi no Postgresql Essa semana fiquei sabendo pelo blog do Savio Rodrigues que a IBM investiu US$ 10 milhões no EnterpriseDB, uma derivação comercial do Postgresql, mas [...]
03.28.08 at 12:04 pm
[...] Much of the talk in the PostgreSQL scene this week was about EnterpriseDB and IBM. On rand($thoughts);, Savio Rodrigues reports the news: IBM invests in EnterpriseDB. [...]
03.29.08 at 3:49 pm
“Oracle has everything but the OS.” Actually it does rebadge and support RedHat as Oracle Enterprise Linux. And that’s pretty much all it needs to do.