OVERVIEW

MySQL is a well-known open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) developed and maintained by Oracle Corporation. Its reputation for reliability, ease of use, and excellent performance make it an appealing choice for office applications, web applications, and a wide range of other use cases.

Allan Larsson, Michael “Monty” Widenius, David Axmark, and MySQL AB, a Swedish corporation, launched MySQL for the first time in 1995. In 2008, Sun Microsystems bought MySQL AB. Oracle Corporation acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010 to assume responsibility for MySQL’s development and maintenance.

Depending on several operating systems, MySQL is cross-platform, such as Windows, Linux, macOS, and others. There are many versions of MySQL available, including MySQL Community Edition, which is free and open-source; MySQL Enterprise Edition, which is commercial; MySQL Cluster CGE, which is commercial for high availability; and MySQL Embedded, which is intended for OEMs and ISVs.

FEATURES

MySQL follows the design guidelines of relational databases by managing structured data through databases that have rows and columns. Several storage engines are supported by MySQL, such as MyISAM, which is non-transactional and designed for read-heavy operations, and InnoDB, which is the default and supports ACID transactions and foreign keys. Moreover, the SQL (Structured Query Language) standard for data management and querying. It provides triggers for automation and the construction of complicated logic, as well as stored procedures for procedural code execution.

The advanced stage of MySQL is important for security as well. Due to its widespread use in the workplace, it receives frequent updates, has a thriving development community, and frequently releases CVE fixes ahead of their release. When it comes to relational database management systems (RDBMS), these elements work together to make MySQL a reliable and secure option. In addition, it provides many replication options, such as group and master-slave duplication, for scalability and high availability. It supports multiple indexing techniques, including full-text indexing for fast information retrieval. Moreover, it allows table segmentation, which enhances large tables' management and performance.

ADVANTAGES

There are free and open sources. MySQL is one of the most popular choices for organizations or businesses regarding software as a service. Its community edition is freely available for anyone to use and modify, offering superior speed, scale, and reliability. This can be extremely beneficial, especially when businesses want to avoid paying licensing fees. Since the source code is available for anyone to view and modify, developers can make changes to their software to suit their specific needs. This flexibility can benefit businesses with unique requirements or if there is a need to integrate the software with other tools or systems.

MySQL is the most secure database management system in the world. The recent version of MySQL offers data security and transactional processing support that can significantly benefit any business, especially e-commerce businesses that carry out frequent monetary transactions. Furthermore, scalability on demand is the hallmark feature of MySQL. It manages deeply embedded applications using a shallow footprint, even in databases that store terabytes of data. In addition, MySQL offers customized solutions to e-commerce enterprises with specific database requirements.

LIMITATION

Scalability issues. As the hardware capacity of a single server increases, MySQL may have trouble growing vertically. Hardened on distributed systems, NoSQL databases have more support for horizontal scalability (sharding) than MySQL. MySQL utilizes many storage engines, such as MyISAM and InnoDB, each of which has a unique locking method. While MyISAM employs table-level locking, which can cause difficulties for concurrent write operations, InnoDB uses row-level locking, which is more effective for high-concurrency situations. 

Next, complex queries, especially those requiring several joins and subqueries, can cause MySQL to perform poorly. Though it can handle huge data sets and intricate indexing methods, MySQL lacks support for indexing. It might also be difficult and restrictive to use multiple MySQL storage engines as they offer different feature sets. For instance, transactions and foreign keys are only supported by InnoDB.