Open source databases: the 97-pound weakling

50GB? My iPod holds a lot more than that.

Meanwhile, express products by Oracle and IBM may well pose a threat to open source. The 451 Group survey found that adoption of express databases is strong in the enterprise -- Oracle Express has an adoption rate of 13 per cent among businesses with more than 1,000 employees -- but much weaker in smaller businesses.

"One way to read this is that the Express and open source products do not compete directly, since Express products are more likely to be deployed by larger enterprises and open source products by smaller enterprises. Another way to read this is that in fact the adoption of Express databases by larger customers has been at the expense of open source databases," said the 451 Group.

The investors show they believe in the potential

Before anyone relegates open source databases to technology's dustbin, it's worth remembering that despite all of the Silicon Valley nonsense about "The Art of War," a successful business does not have to annihilate the enemy. What it has to do is make money.

It's not clear, for example, if Ingres is profitable yet, but with top-line growth of 100 per cent, it may well be headed in that direction. Similarly, now that MySQL has the marketing muscle of Sun behind it, it could well do much better than it did as a stand-alone.

Indeed, venture capitalists, who have a very unsentimental view of the world, are pouring money into open source ventures at a record rate. VCs sent US$204 million into open source during the first quarter of this year, more than double the VC funding that went into open source companies during the same period a year ago, according to the 451 Group.

Last week, EnterpriseDB announced that it had closed a US$10 million round of venture capital financing with IBM, Charles River Ventures, Fidelity Ventures, and Valhalla Partners.

That's heartening news. But don't expect the open source guys to kick sand in Larry Ellison's face anytime soon.