Its been few weeks since we’ve released our free MySQL schema and data comparison. People came, downloaded, used, and gave us some feedback. Last week we have posted an update.
Among the things people wanted and we intend to put in soon:
1. The ability to further fine-tune table comparisons: to decide if to compare foreign keys and indexes as well, or not
2. When comparing and migrating data, the ability to retain auto-generated values or not (auto_increment)
Any other ideas you may have? Drop us a line and let us know! We are serious about making this the no.1 SQL schema\data comparison tool out there. We cannot do it without people’s feedback
Friday, October 3, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
MySQL Schema\Data Comparison?
In my previous post I spoke about our company's intent to step into the MySQL market. I described the rational and the general idea behind it.
Few weeks have passed and we are soon to be ready with our Data Comparison tool . (do not download yet since right now it only supports SQL Server) so I thought I'll be thinking aloud here specifically about that.
tools are extremely useful. If you are a developer or a DBA who is working with more than a single copy of the database (and that's. everybody) - you need it. And while there are endless companies who offer solutions for that in other areas, including one recent solution coming out from Microsoft themselves - surprisingly, there aren't much solutions in the MySQL world.
Why is that?
(Well, I'm not speaking rhetorically here. I really want to know. Do provide me your opinions)
Speaking with some MySQL people, I have learned that many use a comparison feature that exists in some other product - like the TOAD editor. Which tools are you using? Are you happy with them? What are their main weaknesses?
I'm actually quite excited about what we got coming up our sleeves. It does exactly what it says it is, its simple and easy to use, and it does both schema and data in one shot. (and its MySQL version will be offered for free) But of course, we do want to know what else out there.
So do let us know!
Jonathan
Monday, June 16, 2008
To MySQL or not to MySQL
This blog will report on random thoughts within the company at any point in time, and we decided to open with a big question we are discussing these days: to MySQL or not to MySQL? Namely, is it worth it to go into the MySQL Market?
We had lots of success in the SQL Server world. Can we replicate it in MySQL? On the surface, the answer is ‘yes’; and why not? It’s a huge market, there aren’t many tools out there, there will be almost no competition, and we could leverage some of our existing code base.
But then again, we must ask ourselves: what’s the catch? How come such a huge market has so little tools to it? True, it’s new. But it’s not THAT new. And in our super competitive industry, each problem means a dozen or more startups within few months offering to fix it. Why is the 3rd party tools market for MySQL is so small, and the tools that do exist seem, at least at first glance, so buggy and unstable? (We don’t want to mention names, but we’ve tried few of the most popular 3rd party commercial tools for MySQL on the market today, and by comparison they seem so pre-mature that they would not have much chance in there)
The answer would seem obvious. MySQL people, while being intelligent, very much open to new things and highly enthusiastic about new ‘toys’, simply don’t like to pay. My conclusion is that this is what it all comes down to. Anything that smells of commercialism and profit, so much welcomed in the Microsoft world, simply stinks here. This is open source world, people like it that way (otherwise, they would be with Microsoft, or elsewhere, but not here) and they wish it to stay that way. Every newcomer intending on making profit from that environment is looked upon as a foreign invader.
We already have one tool that supports MySQL (http://www.nobhillsoft.com/DataProfiler.aspx) and although we are giving it for free, we still ran into some resistance among MySQL users – perhaps because we are a for-profit entity, which means we use words like ‘customer’ when referring to the users, which they didn’t really like.
So, is that it? Is that the ‘catch’ involved, and the reason there are relatively few tools for MySQL? We would really like to know your thoughts. We are definitely looking to get into that market and fill it with our goods. But – we are honest people and as such we wish to be clear about our intentions – we are here to make money. And hopefully plenty of it. Can our mentality operate successfully in this new sphere?And, if you’d be so kind as to respond, do let us know what tools are most urgently lacking in the field; the more we think about the possibilities, the more exciting it gets
Many Thanks
Jonathan
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