Oct 5, 2009

MySQL, Open Source, SMBs and my Home Country

I know that you may have read about it before, but I want to summarize some interesting evolutions of MySQL and the Open Source adoption in Europe.
I will reflect on it with a specific focus on Italy, for two reasons: Italy is my home country and is of the territories where I work as a Sales Engineer (together with Iberia and Emerging Markets).

MySQL has just released survey of 637 small and medium-size businesses (less than 500 employees) in Europe documenting open source usage. According to the survey the future will be full of satisfaction for MySQL.

You can read the comments in Zack's post here. I just want to highlight a few notable facts in the survey:
  • More that 50% of interviewed companies are using open source software and Italy is in the top 3, behind Germany and France;
  • When asked if they intend to increase the usage of MySQL, this time Italian companies are at the top, planning to expand the adoption by 64%;
  • In two years only 15% of Italian SMBs will not use have any open source product in their infrastructure;
  • 57% of Italian users are taking advantage of open source for critical projects;
  • Top reasons for adopting MySQL are: cost savings, performance and scalability and ease of use;
I always considered my country as part of the late majority in the technology adoption lifecycle, but this time I'm very proud that we are amongst the top open source adopters. Another interpretation of this phenomenon is that open source is really main stream now and thus we are not as ingenious as I may think, but this is another story. :-)

If you want to stay updated on what I'm doing, feel free to follow me on twitter or get in touch via LinkedIn. According to the survey, the MySQL team will work a lot in the next months!

2 comments:

Tony Bain said...

Was this survey done before or after Oracle announced it was buying Sun?

Unknown said...

Hi Tony,

the fieldwork was performed from the 16:th of July to the 20:th of August 2009. The interviews were conducted in 7 European countries; UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands and Belgium.

You can download the survey at the links in the article. I hope this answers your questions.
Regards,

Luca