According to a recent Sun sponsored TNS Gallup survey conducted in Europe, Open Source Software (OSS) and MySQL are showing great momentum within SMBs!

Some key finding from the survey are:

• 54% of SMBs currently use OSS. The highest usage was recorded in France with 72% of SMBs currently using OSS. Germany takes the 2nd place with 69%, followed by Italy with 67%.
• 2 years from now, the overall percentage of SMBs using open source in the countries surveyed will have risen to 70%.
• Use of OSS is also on the rise as a percentage of the total IT infrastructure of SMBs. In 2011, OSS will represent between 25% and 100% of the IT infrastructure of a third of SMBs.
• About 60% of SMBs already use OSS for critical projects.
• In the next 12 months, 42% of SMBs surveyed will increase their usage of MySQL. The strongest growth is expected in Italy where the percentage rises to 64%.
• The key motivations of SMBs for using MySQL are:
  • #1: Cost savings
  • #2: Choice of OS & programming language
  • #3: Performance & scalability
  • #4: Ease of use

The ranking of the above reasons varies from country to country, download the survey summary report to learn more.

MySQL Enterprise for SMBs

The MySQL Enterprise subscription is quickly becoming extremely popular among SMBs. Indeed, with MySQL Enterprise you can:

• Avoid proprietary vendor lock-in and chose to deploy your database applications on Windows or Linux, using Java, Visual Basic or PHP, as well as many other platforms and languages according to your needs.
• Equip systems administrators and developers with the tools they need to effectively and easily administer your MySQL databases. The MySQL Enterprise Monitor acts as a virtual DBA Assistant providing them with "MySQL expertise in a box".
• Lower your costs by 90%, by getting rid of expensive proprietary license fees.