Gartner reports 50 percent growth in use of open source DBMS

Gartner has issued a new report “The Growing Maturity of Open-Source Database Management Systems” by DBMS analyst Donald Feinberg. Feinberg is an old hand at Gartner, having created the DBMS research group there after running technical marketing at Oracle in the early years, and is now VP and Distinguished Analyst. So if anyone understands the evolution of the database market and the impact of open source, it’s Donald.

The report notes that open source DBMS revenue grew by 42.4 percent last year, a higher rate than previously and faster than the overall DBMS market. While open source is very small part of the overall DBMS revenues, Gartner expects open source revenues to exceed $1 billion by 2013. I believe that rate of adoption (e.g., including nonpaying users) is growing even faster.

Finally, a recent study run by Gartner in 2008, showed that 73% of participants are using open-source DBMS, up from 49% the previous year. Although this study only includes those organizations that currently use some form of open source product in production, it demonstrates a 50% increase from 2007 to 2008 in usage of open source DBMS in production.

Gartner also notes that the free “express editions” from Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, et al, have done little to slow down adoption of open source. The 10-page report is well worth reading and is available online to Gartner subscribers.