MySQL this week boosted its open source database to give it what the company calls enterprise-level functionality, but the product still falls short of what some analysts believe it needs to play in the big leagues of databases. IBM, meanwhile, is pledging to keep its DB2 database out of the realm of open source and maintain its availability only through a commercial license.”We don’t see any benefit from a corporate point of view,” to an open source route for DB2, said Paul Rivot, director of Database Servers at IBM. ”Our current business model fits with what customers are asking for,” Rivot said. Customers are willing to pay for the bells and whistles of a database such as DB2, with its OLTP capabilities and high availability, he said. For the time being, companies such as Oracle and IBM can maintain their cash-cow databases in the face of open source offerings. But as companies like MySQL add functionality such as triggers and stored procedures, it will be interesting to see if MySQL starts rising in price or if Oracle and DB2 have to start cutting their prices to keep users aboard, with open source alternatives growing as a serious competitive threat. Technology Industry