EE204: Business Management for
Electrical Engineers and Computer Scientists

MySQL Open Source Database in 2004

Read

  1. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
  2. MySQL Open Source Database in 2004
  3. Order of Magnitude Analysis

Case Summary

In 2004, MySQL was a small, $10 million Scandinavian software company that seriously challenged the big three IT companies, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle, in their high-margin, $10 billion database business. A new phenomenon in the software industry--open source--provided ways for new entrants to challenge the incumbents and gain a foothold in a low-cost segment of the market. This case provides the opportunity to study the forces that would determine whether MySQL could change the database software category in the way Linux did for server operating system space. MySQL relied on a low-cost business model with a global, virtual organization, and the case frames the question of whether this innovative, Internet-based business model could be scaled into a large, profitable growth company. The case describes the open source software phenomenon through a specific case, MySQL, and how the company established the position potentially to challenge every DBMS player in the market.

Discussion Questions

  1. Identify different segments of the DBMS market. What differences exist between these segments e.g. in customer needs and expectations?
  2. Which principles of the innovators dilemma are applicable to Oracle? Which are applicable to MySQL?
  3. Analyze the DBMS segment in which MySQL operates. How attractive is it?
  4. How successful is MySQL, why?
  5. What are the competitive advantages of MySQL and how stainable are they? Quantify these advantages to the extent possible in the identified market segments.
  6. At the time of the case what is the stated go forward strategy of MySQL? (A strategy is a set of unique activities.) How consistent are MSQL actions with the stated strategy?
  7. What are the possible flaws in the innovators dilemma model with respect to the MySQL case
  8. .What are MySQL’s strategic options beyond 2004? Which option should MySQL choose?

Marten Mickos on Virtualization