Is mySQL now enterprise class?

That's the question that kept coming to mind when I talked with Paola Lubet, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development at Solid Software, about IBM's announcement it will support mySQL on its System i platform.

The announcement was made at the mySQL user conference, which closes today in Santa Clara.

Solid has been pushing mySQL support products for some time. "mySQL is going upstream," she said. "It will be adopted in more and more mission critical applications."

She continued, "It creates the opportunity for a customer. Before they had to deal with one size fits all databases. Now depending on the workload their application can be developed on the mySQL engine and load it on whatever fits."

This may read like marketing hype, but Ms. Lubet helped direct the launch of Oracle8i while at that company. She's an industry veteran. She knows her stuff. She wouldn't say something like this if she didn't mean it.

IBM's decision to work more closely with mySQL is one of those little steps that may, in time, have an enormous impact.

What do you think? Is mySQL now a choice enterprises can place alongside Oracle, IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server? Or does it still have a long way to go?