Moving with SQL Server to Linux? Move from SQL Server to MySQL as well!

In this blog, we’ll discuss MicroSoft’s recent announcement that SQL Server will be available on Linux. If you’re going to Linux, why not move from SQL Server to MySQL?

The open source operating system Linux powers nearly one-quarter of all the servers running in Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. Until just last week, this meant nearly one-quarter of Azure cloud servers couldn’t actually run much Microsoft software.

So Microsoft is porting SQL Server to Linux. Currently, there is a private preview available with a planned full release sometime in mid-2017.  Microsoft clarified it would offer at least SQL Server’s core capabilities. Microsoft will include other components after they receive customer requests and feedback. Initially, Microsoft’s Linux version will support relational databases, but leave out the business intelligence side of the software suite for a later date.

Microsoft isn’t open sourcing SQL Server’s code, but making it Linux-compatible is a big change for the company. This is quite a move for Microsoft, signaling at some acknowledgment that open source platforms have the potential to drive revenue. Which is funny, seeing as they once compared Linux to a cancer.

The move also demonstrates the legitimacy of open source development: if there are enough businesses out there willing to use Linux rather than Windows as a platform, obviously any debate over stability, functionality or security is over. But over the years, open source has won over not just hackers and the computer-savvy, but corporations and governments as well.

And why would so many companies be on Linux? I’m going to guess it’s to reduce licensing fees for platform software (such as Windows) and avoid being driven by a single vendor. This makes sense for today’s business world: open source isn’t the wild west anymore, and is a viable alternative to proprietary licensed software. Windows has lost dominance due to missteps in the mobile market and an industry-wide move to web and cloud computing.

So now that you’re saving costs on your platform, and you’ve moved to Linux, why wouldn’t you go one step further and save money on your DBMS licensing by moving from SQL Server to MySQL? Why only go half way – especially since the full version’s release is unknown?

Windows users should be plenty familiar with MySQL, it used often enough by people already trying to cut down on licensing costs, and is increasing in popularity against SQL Server – as evidenced by this graph:

(Graph taken from http://db-engines.com/. You can see an interactive version can here.)

And the benefits of migrating are pretty clear:

• Eliminate the license and support fees for MS SQL Server (or other SQL software). Even various MySQL enterprise versions are less expensive (and frankly, there are several completely open source license version available at NO cost)
• MySQL already supports a wide range of operating systems (OS), including several Linux distros – so, better late than never, Microsoft, but still . . .
• MySQL isn’t tied to a single vendor’s software, so it’s easier to scale or change your environment to adapt to different workloads.
• Almost every aspect of MySQL, including advanced features, have been tested intensively by a massive open source community over years – there isn’t an issue or configuration that hasn’t been thoroughly dealt with 
• Several pluggable storage engines, as opposed to one for SQL Server
• MySQL feature set is equal if not better than SQL Server for today’s workloads. You can see a fairly good, if not totally accurate, comparison here. With the recent release of MySQL 5.7, even more performance and monitoring features are available, including multi-source replication, InnoDB enhancements, security updates, and optimizer improvements.  

What about MySQL’s performance and scalability compared to SQL Server? Seeing as numerous sites use MySQL for large scale applications and huge workloads (Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, etc.), it shouldn’t be much of a question anymore. And it’s not just a web-centric platform, as evidenced by numerous enterprise and government agency adoptions, in many industries: F5, Telenor, NASA, Scholastic, etc.  MySQL’s performance and scalability are clearly in line with SQL Server.

There are multiple online tools to help you migrate from SQL Server to MySQL, any number of which are excellent: MySQL Workbench and AWS Database Migration tool are two examples with a good deal of online documentation and support.