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Why do most of these "cloud database" offerings, seem to be built on MySQL ? RDS, Rackspace and Google all are MySQL first - only Heroku seems to be Postgres.

Why do most of these "cloud database" offerings, seem to be built on MySQL ? RDS, Rackspace and Google all are MySQL first - only Heroku seems to be Postgres. Does Mysql lend itself innately to scalability at Amazon/Google scale that is hard to do with Postgres ?

derengel 13y ago
Just guessing but maybe cause MySQL is(was?) more popular? the PHP and Java crowd is popular for using MySQL
- res0nat0r 13y ago
  Postgres support was added to RDS a few months ago FYI. http://aws.amazon.com/rds/postgresql/details/ http://aws.amazon.com/rds/postgresql/details/ Also I think it is just because MySQL is generally more popular than PG, so it is deployed first in most cases, with PG support being added later.
  - sandGorgon 13y ago
    yes I am aware of that - PG came after SQL Server and Oracle added to RDS first. I dont know why the situation is so bad. Rackspace, for all its much-vaunted "fanatical support", refuses to touch Postgres.
    - res0nat0r 13y ago
      Mainly because to provide 'fanatical support' of PG means adding an entire new software component and everything that comes with it, and ensuring they can keep delivering high quality service. They probably don't want to take on the operational burden adding a 2nd DB would entail vs. the added revenue it might generate.
Lewisham 13y ago
MySQL provides the underpinnings for many other hosted apps, like Wordpress. It's the lingua franca of web databases, so that's why we're working with it. Disclaimer: I'm a developer on Cloud SQL.
- sandGorgon 13y ago
  Thank you for replying, but it seems weird that are competing for that segment against... well, Dreamhost. In fact, I would say that you would have a large segment of people/startups interested in leveraging postgresql on the cloud without the headache of managing replication,etc.
  - Lewisham 13y ago
    Speaking for myself and not for the company (I only joined Cloud SQL in October), given limited time/people/money, I'd have made the same choice. Everything on the web can run on MySQL, or has a connector to do so. Postgres, even a year or two ago, was a lot more difficult. Things are different now with the popularity of Postgres, but that's how we got from there to here. The goal of Cloud is to provide the building blocks so people can make great products. The quickest way to making good stuff is to use the same tools that everyone is already familiar with, and I think that's why Cloud SQL exists. If you want more "touch" on the database for more power, there's Cloud Datastore [1]. But we support companies like Costco on Cloud SQL, so it's good for a lot of folks. https://cloud.google.com/products/cloud-datastore/ https://cloud.google.com/products/cloud-datastore/
    - michaelt 13y ago
      Are there any plans to offer mysql 5.6 or 5.7? As I understand it [1] currently only mysql 5.5 is available. [1] https://developers.google.com/cloud-sql/faq#version https://developers.google.com/cloud-sql/faq#version
      - Lewisham 13y ago
        Lawyercats won't let me speak about future plans, I'm afraid :(
cwyers 13y ago
MySQL's replication abilities are generally more mature and fully-featured than Postgres, although that's a lot less true now than it used to be.
rdtsc 13y ago
There is Cloudant, their DB shares the protocol with CouchDB -- a clean restful API. https://cloudant.com/product/cloudant-features/restful-api/ https://cloudant.com/product/cloudant-features/restful-api/
nousernamesleft 13y ago
>Does Mysql lend itself innately to scalability at Amazon/Google scale that is hard to do with Postgres ? No, quite the opposite actually. Mysql scales poorly with high concurrency, and replication suffers from "oops I stopped working and you have to manually intervene now" syndrome. They use mysql because it is what most customers want.

derengel 13y ago

Just guessing but maybe cause MySQL is(was?) more popular? the PHP and Java crowd is popular for using MySQL

res0nat0r 13y ago
Postgres support was added to RDS a few months ago FYI. http://aws.amazon.com/rds/postgresql/details/ http://aws.amazon.com/rds/postgresql/details/ Also I think it is just because MySQL is generally more popular than PG, so it is deployed first in most cases, with PG support being added later.
- sandGorgon 13y ago
  yes I am aware of that - PG came after SQL Server and Oracle added to RDS first. I dont know why the situation is so bad. Rackspace, for all its much-vaunted "fanatical support", refuses to touch Postgres.
  - res0nat0r 13y ago
    Mainly because to provide 'fanatical support' of PG means adding an entire new software component and everything that comes with it, and ensuring they can keep delivering high quality service. They probably don't want to take on the operational burden adding a 2nd DB would entail vs. the added revenue it might generate.

Lewisham 13y ago

MySQL provides the underpinnings for many other hosted apps, like Wordpress. It's the lingua franca of web databases, so that's why we're working with it. Disclaimer: I'm a developer on Cloud SQL.

sandGorgon 13y ago
Thank you for replying, but it seems weird that are competing for that segment against... well, Dreamhost. In fact, I would say that you would have a large segment of people/startups interested in leveraging postgresql on the cloud without the headache of managing replication,etc.
- Lewisham 13y ago
  Speaking for myself and not for the company (I only joined Cloud SQL in October), given limited time/people/money, I'd have made the same choice. Everything on the web can run on MySQL, or has a connector to do so. Postgres, even a year or two ago, was a lot more difficult. Things are different now with the popularity of Postgres, but that's how we got from there to here. The goal of Cloud is to provide the building blocks so people can make great products. The quickest way to making good stuff is to use the same tools that everyone is already familiar with, and I think that's why Cloud SQL exists. If you want more "touch" on the database for more power, there's Cloud Datastore [1]. But we support companies like Costco on Cloud SQL, so it's good for a lot of folks. https://cloud.google.com/products/cloud-datastore/ https://cloud.google.com/products/cloud-datastore/
  - michaelt 13y ago
    Are there any plans to offer mysql 5.6 or 5.7? As I understand it [1] currently only mysql 5.5 is available. [1] https://developers.google.com/cloud-sql/faq#version https://developers.google.com/cloud-sql/faq#version
    - Lewisham 13y ago
      Lawyercats won't let me speak about future plans, I'm afraid :(

cwyers 13y ago

MySQL's replication abilities are generally more mature and fully-featured than Postgres, although that's a lot less true now than it used to be.

rdtsc 13y ago

There is Cloudant, their DB shares the protocol with CouchDB -- a clean restful API. https://cloudant.com/product/cloudant-features/restful-api/ https://cloudant.com/product/cloudant-features/restful-api/

nousernamesleft 13y ago

>Does Mysql lend itself innately to scalability at Amazon/Google scale that is hard to do with Postgres ? No, quite the opposite actually. Mysql scales poorly with high concurrency, and replication suffers from "oops I stopped working and you have to manually intervene now" syndrome. They use mysql because it is what most customers want.