Sony is just one of the big companies taking a serious look at the maverick open source data base software, reports BusinessWeek. The big names like Oracle and IBM have had a lock on this kind of work for decades because they invented it and the top decision makers knew it was the safe choice when they didn’t have a clue about database hardware or software.

Those companies still dominate but the open source outfits are developing a foothold. Unlike the big boys who make their money from the software sales and the service contracts, companies like MySQL make their money servicing the product once it’s installed.

The reason for the shift is not hard to find - the software can be 90 percent cheaper and when we’re talking about big corporate databases we’re talking about big bucks.

And one more thing: One exec tells the magazine the open source software is much easier to operate than the traditional choices, which often require more spending on the consultants to get it to work.