MySQL[1], the open source relational database that came to Oracle[2] through the Sun Microsystems acquisition, originated as a relatively simple relational database that was known for one task: transaction processing. In an announcement today, Oracle is unveiling an extended version of MySQL that takes it into data warehousing territory. It is releasing a new managed MySQL database service on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) that will support both transaction and analytic processing workloads.
That creates a key change for MySQL users. With few if any analytic options open, MySQL users typically resorted to ETL to move data to a separate database if they needed a data warehouse. In the new Oracle cloud service, it's part of the same offering, and thanks to liberal use of in-memory technology, eliminates the need to run ETL.
Until now, MySQL has been primarily restricted to transaction processing as it lacks features, such as support for materialized view[3]s for queries relying on aggregated or derived data that are critical to analytics. And also, until now, Oracle has not been top-of-mind for MySQL users; by coming out with a highly differentiated service, it aims to change that.
The approach that Oracle is taking to extend MySQL is not all that unusual in the open source database world; it is adding extensions rather than modifying the core engine to deliver new functionality. That practice is common in the PostgreSQL community. For instance, the Greenplum database[4], now part of Pivotal, adapted PostgreSQL to support analytics. Citus Data[5], now part of Microsoft, extended PostgreSQL[6] to support sharded transaction processing. And the list goes on[7].
Oracle is not the first to innovate atop MySQL. AWS extended MySQL in Aurora[8]