Migration from Sybase to MySQL

MySQL is the world’s most popular open source database. Migrating from Sybase to MySQL provides the following benefits:

Business benefits:

  • Reduce security & compliance risk: MySQL continuously delivers advanced security capabilities to meet the latest data protection and regulatory requirements, including GDPR, DISA STIG, PCI DSS. SAP has discontinued development of Sybase and laid off engineers in development and support, putting database security at risk.
  • Faster time to market: Companies are using MySQL, open source technologies, and modern development languages to improve agility and bring modern applications to market faster.
  • 90% TCO Savings: MySQL’s simple, affordable, and transparent server-based subscription model delivers a 90% TCO savings over Sybase. Sybase is cost-prohibitive for modern database applications.

Technical benefits:

  • MySQL roadmap and innovation: The MySQL Roadmap is aggressively delivering new capabilities for our customers. Sybase faces product obsolescence risk. SAP has not provided any real innovations to customers since Sybase ASE v16 in April 2014. The official EOL date for Sybase is 2025.
  • Developers choose MySQL: MySQL’s ease of use, high-performance, and reliability make it one of the most popular databases for developers. Developers do not choose Sybase, and it is becoming increasing difficult to hire developers with Sybase skills.
  • Robust open source ecosystem: The world’s most popular open source products including WordPress, Drupal Apache, Tomcat, JBoss, Joomla, Grafana, Hibernate, SQLAlchemy and hundreds more support MySQL. Sybase is not supported by any modern open source applications.

MySQL: The World's Most Popular Open Source Database

MySQL is the world's most popular open source database because of its reliability, high-performance, and ease of use. MySQL combines the benefits of a widely adopted open source database with high quality, 24x7 support, training and consulting services delivered by Oracle, the world's leader in database technology. As a result, MySQL users benefit from both a strong ecosystem, with millions of users, as well as the backing of the world's leading database company that has the proven ability to support its customers' mission critical database applications worldwide.

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According to DB-Engines, MySQL is the world's most popular open source database. In fact, the world's #1 and #2 most popular databases are developed at Oracle. On the other hand, Sybase is ranked #25 in the DB Engines list.

Market Share

MySQL is Open Source and Ubiquitous

MySQL is the world’s most popular open source database and the “M” in the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL PHP/Perl/Python). LAMP is a proven technology stack used by the most popular Web sites in the world including Facebook, Booking, Twitter, Shopify, Square, and Uber.

Sybase was acquired by SAP in 2010, since then its market share has collapsed. Sybase is not as widely deployed, nor as ubiquitous, nor as highly rated as MySQL.

MySQL is Developed and Backed by the Oracle MySQL Engineering Team

Oracle develops, maintains, and supports MySQL. The MySQL Product Roadmap is controlled and defined by MySQL Engineering & Product Management, in concert with MySQL Support, MySQL Customers, and users.

Sybase development has been discontinued by SAP and development and support engineers have been laid off. The official EOL date for Sybase is 2025.

MySQL for Modern Web, SaaS and Cloud Applications

MySQL continues to be the choice for modern database applications including Web, SaaS, and Cloud applications. Some of the world’s most trafficked applications rely on MySQL proving it can meet the most demanding performance and scalability requirements. For example:

  • Web (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
  • E-commerce (Booking, Airbnb, Uber, Shopify)
  • FinTech (Square)
  • Banking (JPMC, BankAmerica, Wells Fargo)

Sybase has no reference customers for any modern Web or SaaS applications. Companies are migrating from Sybase to MySQL for their Web, SaaS, and Cloud applications. Sybase does not meet the needs of organizations that require a cost-effective, easy to use and scalable database solution.

MySQL is Supported by Popular Open Source Applications

The world’s most popular open source products including WordPress, Drupal Apache, Tomcat, JBoss, Joomla, Hibernate, SQLAlchemy and hundreds more support MySQL. Companies are using MySQL and modern open source products to deploy flexible and agile IT infrastructures.

Sybase is not supported by most modern open source application.

MySQL is Supported by All Modern Development Language

MySQL gives developers the freedom to develop applications using the language of their choice including PHP/Perl/Python, Ruby, C, C++, C#, Java, .Net, as well as Go, Rust, and NodeJS.

Sybase is not supported by new languages (e.g. Go, Rust, NodeJS).

MySQL for Developers

According to the StackOverflow Developer Survey, MySQL is one of the most popular database among developers. This is a result of the MySQL’s ease of use, high-performance, and reliability.

Sybase is not ranked in the list of the 35 most popular databases for developers. It’s becoming increasing difficult to hire developers with Sybase experience.

MySQL for Kubernetes and Microservices Applications

MySQL is a popular database for modern microservices and cloud native applications. The MySQL Operator for Kubernetes is an operator for managing MySQL high availability environments inside a Kubernetes Cluster. It manages the full lifecycle with set up and maintenance that includes automating upgrades and backup.

Sybase is not supported in the Kubernetes ecosystem.

HeatWave for Machine Learning, Lakehouse, and GenAI with MySQL

HeatWave delivers automated and integrated generative AI and machine learning (ML) in one cloud service for transactions and lakehouse scale analytics. Deploy HeatWave in your choice of public clouds: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure.

Sybase does not have support for in-database Machine Learning, GenAI, or Lakehouse.

MySQL is Ubiquitous in the Cloud

MySQL is the most popular databases for cloud applications. Every cloud provider offers a fully managed MySQL service. HeatWave, Oracle’s fully managed cloud service for OLTP, OLAP, ML, and GenAI is available in AWS, Azure, OCI and in your own data center with OCI Dedicated Region.

Sybase is not available as a fully managed database service by any of the popular cloud providers.

MySQL Continuous Investment and Innovation

The MySQL Engineering Team at Oracle continuously innovates MySQL with new features, bug fixes, and security fixes. The MySQL release model provides Innovation Releases for developers that want access to the latest features, improvements, and changes. MySQL LTS (Long Term Support) releases provide a stable set of features backed by Oracle Lifetime Support.

Sybase faces product obsolescence risk. SAP has not provided any real innovations to customers since Sybase ASE v16 in April 2014. SAP has laid off developers and support engineers, and is EOL in 2025.

MySQL for Security and Compliance

The MySQL development roadmap continuously adds security capabilities to meet the latest data protection and regulatory requirements, including GDPR, DISA STIG, PCI DSS. All MySQL releases include bug and security fixes and are considered production-grade quality.

Sybase EOL means security and compliance risks for customers. No new patches and enhancements for customers will put their database security at risk and expose them to potential data breaches. According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach in 2024 is $4.88 million.

MySQL Delivers 90% TCO Savings

MySQL is a cost-effective, open source alternative to Sybase. MySQL’s simple, affordable, and transparent server-based subscription model delivers a 90% TCO savings over Sybase.

Sybase has complex, opaque pricing making it cost-prohibitive for modern database applications.