MySQL 5.7 aims at deeper convergence with Oracle tech and NoSQL

Oracle has released an upgrade to its open-source database MySQL, with the purpose of making it work better with Oracle’s database technologies and NoSQL databases.

MySQL 5.7 continues a convergence path demonstrated by 5.6 in 2013, as reported by Computer Weekly.

Tomas Ulin, vice-president of MySQL development at Oracle, said the significance of the upgrade release for CIOs lies in the greater performance and scalability of the product, which has been engineered with “next-generation” hardware in mind.

The latest version of the relational database is said to deliver greater performance, scalability and manageability, and has enhanced NoSQL capabilities with JSON support. This is said to enable organisations to “effectively drive digital transformation with a modern and reliable open-source database infrastructure”, according to a statement.

“MySQL 5.7 delivers a wide range of innovations, allowing developers, database administrators and DevOps teams to build and manage next-generation web and cloud-based applications capable of processing ever-increasing volumes of data,” said Ulin.

“It builds on development milestone releases that have enabled users to preview, test and provide feedback during the development process. As a result, this release has been a collaborative process involving a wide range of members of the MySQL community.”

In an interview with Computer Weekly, he added: “We scale very well up to 64-core plus with the software now. So in two years’ time, for example, when a CIO equips his IT shop with new machines, 5.7 is written to fully utilise those.

“We’ve also added security features and it is more manageable. For example, we have added a SYS schema on top that provides helper objects that answer common performance, health, usage and monitoring questions.

“For an Oracle shop, we have provided a lot of integration. So with Oracle Enterprise Manager you can manage the MySQL servers in your department. There is a convergence story here with all of Oracle’s software – and with NoSQL,” he said.

Ulin confirmed that the MySQL team at Oracle has been trialling the upgrade with large web-based e-commerce customers, such as online ticket management and hotel booking companies.

“We are still focused on current and upcoming needs of web companies, but ‘web’ is wide, both internally and externally. You could be running your web infrastructure in the company and that, too, is web. Almost every application today is web-based. We are not, however, getting into the enterprise resource planning, back-end Oracle apps space with this,” he said.

Enhancements in the upgrade to MySQL 5.7, according to Oracle, include:

• Delivery of 1.6 million queries per second (QPS), which is three times faster than MySQL 5.6.
• A new MySQL optimiser dynamic cost model which provides better query performance and greater user control.
• New Native JSON data type and JSON functions.
• Expanded geographic information system (GIS) support for mobile applications.