Sun's "Project Peter" - a plan to migrate Oracle users to MySQL
Submitted by James Love on 21. October 2009 - 0:46
Distributed earlier on Wikileaks, this is reportedly is an internal Sun document, discussing a strategy to migrate Oracle users to MySQL.
"Project Peter is an internal effort to assist Sun / MySQL customers in migrating from Oracle to MySQL by offering them a comprehensive solution that consists of Professional Services, Best Practices, and a set of approved third party migration tools and utilities that will enable them to move to MySQL in a way that is as easy as possible."
For more on this issue, you can see our letter to the European Commission on the Oracle acquisition of MySQ.
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| sun-project-peter.pdf | 597.54 KB |
well...
... I don't think, that this will work! There are too much differences between the two systems! But I will follow this! Greetz from Germany,
Thomas Sabo
What authority has "Project Peter"?
What evidence do you have that this is actually Sun's policy and strategy and not just a proposal from an individual? In large corporations, the normal way to communicate ideas is through presentations like this and the fact it exists proves nothing.
Robin Schumacher
Decide for yourself how significant Robin Schumacher is. When he wrote the Project Peter slides, he was Director Product Management at Sun/MySQL.
See also this June 13, 2006 web page: A Practical Guide to Migrating From Oracle to MySQL
In July 11, 2009, he wrote this blog entry.
Here are a few more of his blog entries.
Or this blog he wrote, called "From Oracle to MySQL."
James Love, Director, KEI
So no actual prooof then
Seems he doesn't work at Sun any more though:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/robin-schumacher/3/87b/2b5
And here he is listed as "Senior Manager:
http://www.mysqlconf.com/mysql2008/public/schedule/speaker/2482
Do you actually have any hard proof that this is Sun strategy? His is not a decision-maker grade at Sun and all you have is proof he had the idea, not that the people he worked for accepted it. If he was a VP or something I'd be more persuaded, but you don't seem to have anything concrete on which to base your complaint. Which, given it's serious consequences, doesn't seem very responsible of you.
No actual proof of what?
The memo certainly is consistent with other actions supported by senior management of Sun before the Merger. Sun was distributing a white paper about Oracle to MySQL migration on its web site, and providing seminars and distance education tools on how to migrate users, and sending the author around to talk about this. All of this is pretty normal for a firm that has a product or service (MySQL) they want people to use.
He was Sun's "Director of Product Management, MySQL," not an intern.
Once a company agrees to be acquired by Oracle, they may indeed change their public views on how much they want to migrate customers from Oracle to MySQL, given that this would cost Oracle a lot of money. What they were saying before the merger is not irrelevant just because they change their story now.
There is an abundance of evidence that Sun was actively trying to migrate Oracle users to MySQL. The memo is just one of several things out there, many of which are still on the Sun web site. You can argue about how successful this was. But there have been some notable defections from Oracle to MySQL, that's a fact. I think more important is where the new development for databases is taking place. Some surveys show MySQL with very large mind share for new projects, particularly in newer markets.
James Love, Director, KEI