MySQL's answer to its Oracle crisis is to say that it's opening up its pluggable database storage engine API and encouraging third-party companies and the open source community to develop other engines for it.

This according to MySQL executive VP of marketing Zack Urlocker, who points out that there are already a few storage engines available for MySQL each good at different things.

MySQL may ultimately narrow the confusion this situation has got to create because it's also going to have one of its own. It's going to be a transactional database engine, code named Falcon, based on the work that MySQL acquired when it bought tiny Netrastructure and its ace database designer Jim Starkey, creator of InterBase, the first relational database to support multi-versioning, event alerters, arrays, triggers and BLOBs.

MySQL describes Falcon as being designed for "Web 2.0 applications and the modern enterprise."

A beta is due this summer and the final cut by the end of the year. It will be covered by the GPL, MySQL said.

Meanwhile, Solid Information Technology, the proprietary database outfit, has confirmed that it will open source a storage engine to replace the InnoDB widgetry, as previously reported. As with MySQL's dual-license model, support will require a contract.

A prototype of the software called the SolidDB Storage Engine is supposed to be available at MySQL's user conference starting April 24, when MySQL trots out Falcon.

A beta version of the Solid stuff is due in July and the finished product in Q4.

Falcon is supposed to be unveiled as part of what MySQL calls a "comprehensive product roadmap covering the MySQL Server, MySQL Network and GUI tools."

The company is supposed to preview MySQL Workbench a new two-way graphical ERD database design tool. It is the next-generation of the community project called DBDesigner.

(This is an edited version of a story that appeared originally at www.clientservernews.com.)