Firebird
the universal open
source database
Why Firebird?
Facts for decision makers
www.MindTheBird.com

Many reasons to think about Firebird…
Java, Visual Studio, Delphi, C++ From 1 Mb to Terabyte
Extremely developer-friendly Powerful
Choice of tools PHP, Ruby, Python 4 architectures to choose
Easy to embed economize
No double licensing
True open source free Migrate from InterBase
Multi-versioning architecture
Designed for universal (OLAP+OLTP) systems
32-bit and 64-bit Migrate from MySQL
Multi-platform FreeBSD, Solaris, HP-UX
Windows, Linux, Mac OS X Migrate from Microsoft SQL
SQL standard compliancy
Migrate from Oracle Express and Standard No hidden limits
www.MindTheBird.com

..and so many companies use Firebird…
• 1+ million developers
• 2000+ of installations daily at Windows, and
many at Linux
• Millions of bundled Firebird copies are
installed with ISV applications
• Firebird is included into all main Linux
repositories and distributions
www.MindTheBird.com

..so this is time to ask:
is Firebird
good enough
for your goal?
www.MindTheBird.com

The most important features of Firebird
FEATURES
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: multi-generation architecture
Readers do not lock writers
It’s X at 10-00 AM
It’s Y at 10-30 AM
OLTP OLAP (reports, BI)
Hybrid (OLTP+OLAP) Automatic sweep Competitors
MGA makes a Firebird with this feature
Firebird can manage • MSSQL 2005+
database capable of serving versioning automatically (Standard and Ent,
simultaneously as both an not Express)
analytical and an operational
and perform sweep
• Oracle
data store (OLTP/OLAP). (known as vacuum in • PostgreSQL
other DBMS) as needed. • InterBase
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: active tables
Table_1 Context variables NEW. and
Trigger
OLD. provides easy access
ID to modified values.
Name
NEW.
Wide range of triggers’ Age
types allows flexible Scores
modifications of records OLD.
AS Developer-friendly database
BEGIN
Active tables concept, rich SQL language,
IF (NEW.SCORES IS NULL) THEN
wide range of embedded SQL functions,
NEW.SCORES = 1;
// nobody starts from Null with Firebird User Defined Functions (UDF) and stored
END procedures make Firebird database
development very easy and pleasant.
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: Events
AS
BEGIN
…
POST_EVENT ‘MY_VIP_EVENT1’;
…
END
Events received by all subscribers
Events Logging and synchronizing
• Notifications can be sent from • Instant notifications can be
database triggers, stored raised (and written to some
procedures and Execute Blocks table) right from database-
• Flexible subscription level triggers
mechanism
– ON TRANSACTION START
– ON CONNECT
– ON TRANSACTON COMMIT – ON DISCONNECT
– etc – etc
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: rich SQL
Main features Cross-database queries
Query another database using
• High compatibility userpassword
with ANSI SQL EXECUTE STATEMENT '...'
EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE 'host:path'
• Common Table USER 'VLAD' PASSWORD ‘passw’
Expressions (CTE)
• Flexible transactions High compatibility with industry
management standards on many fronts makes
Firebird the obvious choice for
• Full-blown stored
developing interoperable
procedures (selectable
applications for homogeneous and
SP enables joins hybrid environments.
w/tables)
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: Trace API
Trace API
• Real-time
monitoring
• SQL debugging
• Audit
• Events
• Partial or
full logging
• Through
remote
connections
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: Security
Windows Trusted Users and Roles
Authentication
Rights to access Grants
UDF, ext. tables
Standard security Windows Trusted Network
• Users and roles Authentication • The only network
• Single-sign on for port should be
• GRANT/REVOKE on open (3050 by
main operations end-users default,
• Integration with configurable)
• Database owner Windows
concept • Aliases (path to the
domain/AD security database is not
exposed)
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: 4 Architectures
Up to 1000 Up to 500 users, Up to 100 users, Single-user,
users, 1Tb size 300 Gb size 50Gb size DBMS in DLL
SuperClassic Classic SuperServer Embedded
New (in 2.5) Small footprint, Lightweight
Heavy duty
architecture! performance, single user full-
architecture for
Combination of easy embedding blown DBMS in
multi-CPU
best features of and silent DLL. Transparent
servers with
SuperServer and installation. upgrade to high
large amount of
Ideal for ISVs. architectures.
Classic. Ideal for RAM and fast
virtualized HDD. *# of database users and sizes are not limits of Firebird.
They are given for information purposes only.
environments. www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: Scalability
• 4 architectures to scale
from 1Mb to 1Tb
– Database limit is 32Tb
– Real-world database 1Tb
• From 1 user to 1000 users
– Transparent scaling
• From embedded DLL to
multi-cores/CPUs
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: Multi-platform database
• Support Windows,
Linux, HP-UX, Solaris,
Mac OS X, FreeBSD,
etc
• 100% interoperability
and 1-step migration
between all platforms
*Supports 32-bit and 64-bit Windows and Linux
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: Development tools
• Firebird.NET
• JayBird (Java)
• UIB, FIBPlus*,
Delphi/C++Builder IBObjects*
(Delphi/C++ Builder)
• FreePascal & Lazarus
• PHP for Firebird
• FireRuby
• and more!
*commercial software
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: Steady roadmap, bright future
Read more www.mindthebird.com
Born in 2000!
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird is going where you’re going
• Your development You decide.
and reporting tools
• You choose
operation system
and architecture
• You choose
hardware
• No vendor lock-in
Firebird works.
www.MindTheBird.com

Where Firebird is used?
USAGE
www.MindTheBird.com

Real-world big Firebird databases
Bas-X Watermark Technologies Profitmed
450+ Gb Firebird 300+Gb Firebird 60+Gb Firebird
Bas-X (Australia) is a leading Watermark Technologies (UK) Profitmed (Russia) joint stock
serves enterprises in Finance company is one the largest
provider of enterprise Russian pharmaceutical
information technologies to and Government sectors. distributors.
independent retailers, Watermark Technologies
particularly multi-site operators produces software which uses They have relatively small
and management groups. Firebird for document database (only ~60Gb and it’s
management which includes growing 2Gb/month), but we
decided to mention them as
Bas-X is a true leader in Firebird- indexed OCR for full text they have extremely high load
based development: two of their search. It is used by financial in terms of simultaneous
customers have Firebird advisers, insurance companies active connections, serving
databases with size more than and so on. There are several hundreds of small resellers
and drug store shops across
450Gb, and several others have 300+Gb Firebird databases Russia.
databases more than 200Gb. deployed at present.
www.basx.com.au www.watermarktech.co.uk www.profitmed.net
www.MindTheBird.com

What is your database size?
# of instances
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
<100Mb <1Gb <50Gb <200Gb <1Tb >1Tb Database
sizes
There are real-world Firebird databases up to 1Terabyte in size.
Is it enough for your task?
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird: all industries, all types of apps
Finance
Retail Pharmaceuticals
Government
These photos are real pictures of enterprises with Firebird (ERP, etc)
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird competitors
COMPETITION
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Firebird: Competition overview
Capabilities Oracle
MS
SQL
Oracle Ent
and MSSQL
Oracle Ent
Oracle
MS SQL
Standard
Postgre
SQL Firebird
MySQL MS SQL
Standard
Inter
Base
price
MSSQL Express, Oracle
Express 0 $5000/CPU $26000/CPU
Free databases Proprietary
*Figure represents price/capabilities graph for the general case of database application,
usually required by ISV and in-house developers.
www.MindTheBird.com

MySQL Points of Consideration
License Undefined future Web <> Ent
MySQL is not free for MySQL AB was sold to Sun, then MySQL still has no free
independent software Sun was sold to Oracle. DB engine which would
vendors (ISVs): Release MySQL 6.0 not happened. be their enterprise layer.
“For OEMs, ISVs, VARs and Other
One of MySQL originators said:
“Help keep the Internet free
Maria – not released.
Distributors of Commercial Falcon – not released.
A big part of the Internet is built on
Applications:
LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and
OEMs, ISVs, VARs and other
PHP/Perl/Python). Now Oracle is trying
distributors that combine and
to buy Sun, which owns MySQL.
distribute commercially licensed
software with MySQL software and Firebird is true
It's not in the Internet users interest
do not wish to distribute the source open source:
that one key piece of the net would be
code for the commercially licensed
owned by an entity that has more to - Mozilla-based
software under version 2 of the GNU
General Public License (the "GPL")
gain by severely limiting and in the long license, absolutely
run even killing it as an open source no restrictions
must enter into a commercial
product than by keeping it alive.” - No double-
license agreement with Sun.”
http://monty- licensing or tricky
says.blogspot.com/2009/12/help-keep- limits
http://mysql.com/about/legal/licensing/oe
internet-free.html
m/
www.MindTheBird.com

InterBase Points of Consideration
Price Easy migration to No 64-bit support
InterBase is a proprietary Firebird Lack of 64-bit support does
product. Modern InterBase 2009 not allow leveraging of
You can consider prices here and Firebird 2.5 are modern hardware and
http://www.embarcadero.co descendant of InterBase 6 software.
m/buy-now.php (released in 2000). Less architectures
Prices are calculated as They still have many similar InterBase has no
1) Server + #*Clients features. SuperClassic and Classic
2) Unlimited license If you have InterBase architectures.
application, it will be easier Less operations systems
Silent installation to migrate to Firebird, than InterBase does not support
To be able to create to any other DBMS. FreeBSD and HP-UX.
silent installation
(without activation) ISV InterBase is not an Open Source anymore.
needs to sign Value You need to seriously count the real advantages and
Added Reseller (VAR) disadvantages of non-open-source product, which has
contract with severe such successful open source competitor as Firebird.
obligations. www.MindTheBird.com

PostgreSQL Points of Consideration
PostgreSQL is similar No embedded version Misc
Among other open source PostgreSQL has no embedded • PostgreSQL has no
databases PostgreSQL is version, so you need to use pre-built binaries for
really full-blown, and it’s as another database (Firebird?) HP-UX
mature as Firebird. for lightweight version of your • Requires Cygwin to
It also uses multi- application. be built from sources
generational architecture, Installation & on Windows
and has a lot of forks and
plugins. Configuration Firebird is easy
PostgreSQL is widely used in Installing of PostgreSQL • Simple
many web-applications and requires more efforts than installation
adopted by several large Firebird, so it will be more • Easy to embed
enterprises. difficult to bundle PostgreSQL into custom
with your application and installers (all
Firebird and PostgreSQL are create 100% “silent” versions)
true open source projects. installation. Also PostgreSQL is • Firebird starts
much more complex to out-of-the-box
configure than Firebird.
www.MindTheBird.com

“Express” databases = No toys, please
• There are several “express” databases
– MS SQL Express, Oracle Express, etc
• They have serious restrictions:
– 4Gb size of database (size is very small in general, not
acceptable for multimedia)
– 1 CPU only
• Cannot be transparently upgraded (re-installation
of full version is required)
• Clearly recognized by community as “free cheese”
www.MindTheBird.com

Microsoft SQL Points of Consideration
Price Windows-Only Heavy administration
You can refer to the prices
here This is Microsoft. MS SQL-based solutions
http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/SQL- This is Windows. usually require professional
Server-2008-Standard-
So you (or your support.
Edition/product/14CF716A/?WT.mc_id=sqlserv
ersite_enterpriselink
customer) need to buy
Price is calculated: Windows Server too.
1) Server License + # of
Client Access Licenses Another cool feature
(CALs) Database engine
2) Unlimited price per e-business
Management tools More
CPU Reporting
SOA stuff Integration stuff
with something
Embedding into your BI web-servcies
product Cloud Enterprise bus
ISV need to sign ISV Royalty Starts from only
Agreement to sell SQL Server as $xxxx per processor
part of third-party solution.
www.MindTheBird.com

Oracle Points of Consideration
Oracle is expensive Firebird and Oracle Heavy administration
Many enterprises uses Oracle-based solutions
and cool usually require professional
Firebird as tier-2
If you can afford Oracle support and dedicated
database with Oracle –
licensing and you can administrator headcount.
while main data store is
afford Oracle based on Oracle,
administrator to keep High developer skills
subsidiaries or remote To create professional
database healthy – it is locations use Firebird. Oracle-based solutions
good for you.
developers are required to
Embedding into your Many ISVs use Firebird have high skills.
product for lightweight versions The main point about
ISV need to sign special of their products, and Oracle is – may be you
agreement to sell Oracle Oracle – for high-end don’t need the most
as part of third-party versions. expensive software to do
solution. the job that can be
accomplished by free
www.MindTheBird.com software?

So, how Firebird can compete with
mature Enterprise databases?
- Million transaction per minute is enough for the most
database applications.
Is it so? Check Forrester report:
TPC Benchmarks Don't Matter Anymore
www.forrester.com/rb/Research/tpc_benchmarks_dont_matter_anymore/q/id/53871/t/2
- Modern hardware (SSD, 64Gb RAM) allows to create very
fast systems, which exceeds general business needs.
Check IDC report #206058:
Will Storage Virtualization Become the
Peacemaker in the Database Wars?
www.MindTheBird.com

Ask the right question
is Firebird
good enough
for your goal?
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird Community: join us!
The most active
developers community
are in:
• Brazil
• Germany
• Russia
• USA
• Australia
• Italia
• France
• Turkey
• Spain
• and more!
www.MindTheBird.com

Firebird Launch: next steps
Visit Firebird 2.5 Launch site www.MindTheBird.com
1. Download Firebird presentations and banners
2. Join MindTheBird! and help Firebird 2.5 to start
– http://twitter.com/mindthefirebird
– http://groups.google.ru/group/mindthebird
– LinkedIn MindTheBird
3. Put Firebird banners and presentations on your
site/blog
Feel free to use any part of this presentation as a template
for your own Firebird-related presentations.
www.MindTheBird.com