MSPmentor

When it comes to Sun Microsystems and MySQL, I sound like a political candidate: I keep flip-flopping on the issues.

I’ve slammed Sun, praised Sun, abandoned Sun, and returned to Sun during the company’s current business turmoil. Despite all the challenges at Sun,  I still believe managed service providers will build hosted services around Sun’s MySQL database. Here’s why.

Most of the major Web 2.0 sites — from Facebook to Yahoo — already leverage MySQL as a database engine. Now, MSPs looking to host applications for their customers are following suit.

Consider the situation at Savvis Inc., a solutions provider that has joined Sun’s MySQL Authorized Hosting partner program. Bill Fathers, senior VP and managing director of Savvis, offers this perspective:

“An ever increasing number of our managed hosting customers now ask us to provide MySQL as a managed service to them, enabling them to avoid the direct costs associated with owning and supporting this layer of their infrastructure.”

I’ve blogged a bit about open source moving into the managed services market. Aside from the traditional application options (MySQL, SugarCRM, etc.), open source is infiltrating the network and security levels of managed services.

Many managed service providers grew up managing and troubleshooting Windows-based applications. And while Microsoft remains quite powerful, it’s time for MSPs to keep their options — and their solutions — open.

I’m not suggesting MySQL can fully fix Sun’s financial woes. But it does remain Sun’s most promising offering to MSPs.

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