Since assuming the mantle of leadership of MySQL AB in 2001, M�rten Mickos has steered the database software company from open source darling to open source powerhouse, multiplying revenue some twentyfold in a very short time. On the eve of the release of MySQL 5.0, Linux Magazine spoke with Mickos about the unique challenges of running the decidedly unique — and very successful — software company.
Since taking over as CEO in 2001, M�rten Mickos has been the business face of MySQL AB(http://www.mysql.com/),the company behind the very popular open source database, MySQL. It’s a job that, judging by the companies that use MySQL, should have put Mickos’s face on the cover of every major business magazine in the world. With more than six million deployments in total(according to the company),MySQL has become the go-to data management tool for giants Google, Yahoo, Nortel, the New York Stock Exchange, and a host of other high-profile clients.
Yet MySQL’s commodity status is both a reason for the database’s popularity and a reason that Mickos’s company, a privately-held operation with 200 employees worldwide, keeps such a relatively low profile. Although the company has had an enviable growth rate — 2004’s $20 million in revenues are supposedly a twentyfold increase over what Mickos encountered his first year — such growth relies heavily on forces outside the control of MySQL AB’s leadership. Like most thriving open source companies, MySQL AB depends on the good work of outside developers and the good faith of young companies eager to exploit the freely-distributed GPL version of MySQL, yet equally willing to pay for the commercially-license non-GPL version once business success compels an upgrade. However, deftly mixing the machinations of open source and a mandate to generate and grow revenue is a tricky balance that MySQL AB has mastered.
Linux Magazine senior contributor Sam Williams interviewed Mickos in between keynote…
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