Google, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are joining forces for a project to create a database called WebScaleSQL. It is a joint collaboration, that involves engineers from different companies, creating a custom version of MySQL that is designed for large scale usage for web companies. WebScaleSQL is open sourced, this means that it will be shared freely throughout the web at no cost.
"Our goal in launching WebScaleSQL is to enable the scale-oriented members of the MySQL community to work more closely together in order to prioritize the aspects that are most important to us," Facebook's Steaphan Greene wrote in a blog post announcing the project this morning.
WebScaleSQL will be a more optimized, developed, collaborative, unified branch of MySQL, with the combined contributions of all four companies, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. All engineers from these companies extensively communicates and provides code that will accomplish the launching of the WebScaleSQL. Others that are able to contribute and provide input towards the project are also encouraged to share their resources.
Some details involving the development of WebScaleSQL are still insufficient at the moment, but it will surely involve large scale optimization and information queries that can test the integrity of the SQL database.
The team up of all 4 tech giants is a statement that in order to solve a certain problem, competition and profits can be set aside. The addition of Google to the team also had provided a big difference on the WebScaleSQL developments. This could definitely provide a lot of advancement to modernize old-school databases involving a massive scale of information. Terabytes or petabytes of user data can be stored and processed on this database.
Recently, Google and Facebook has been in close fight for the search of new and innovative products for the advancement of today's technology. Both companies are reported on investing large sums of money for different tech project. The WebScaleSQL may be proof that they could also work together despite their differences.
