【正文】 type of information changing from recordoriented to contentoriented data. Databases have bee content or information repositories. Handling that and supporting applications is not only transactionoriented but analysisoriented. Mixed content is going to be a way in which databases differentiate themselves. There is the trend to push more analytics into the database, with abilities like data mining in realtime to support new applications. XML will be important as users now store and build content repositories to represent that kind of content. In terms of topology of database performance, the ability to get performance, scalability and high availability in different environments is also gaining importance. Another clear trend in the database space is towards building infrastructure that is robust, secure and lowcost. That is why almost all vendors are looking at offering unlimited scalability and reliability on lowcost puters. Drivers Apart from the increasing adoption of databases in different verticals, the return on investment (RoI) and functionality of databases are also fuelling the growth of DBMS in the country. Consumers, especially after the dot debacle, have started looking at spending less and deriving more RoI from new technology, products and software. Any vendor who relates his offering to RoI would be a successful vendor. Open Source No one has so far dumped a clustered Oracle 9i database and replaced it with a free, open source database downloaded from the Web and running on a bunch of Intelbased Linux/free OS servers. But a growing number of users are pioneering these freely available databases. These users say that open source databases are reaching a stage where they can bee the latest addition to their inventory of open source tools, including the Linux operating system, the Apache Web server and the Tomcat Java servlet engine According to these users, the main attractions of an open source database are: ? Very fast performance, especially in readonly applications. ? No or nominal licensing costs. ? Low administrative and operational costs. As to the backend servers, users are still ingrained with Oracle or DB2, which has a fair amount of support for Linux. It is a typical pattern in panies that are experimenting with open source databases. Highvolume database updates, which are the essence of transactionprocessing applications, remain anchored on products such as Oracle?s 9i and IBM?s DB2 Universal Database, and increasingly Microsoft?s SQL Server. But there are a host of new application areas that don?t require the plex and equally expensive features of conventional databases. MySQL open source database from MySQL has spread from being used by a few groups to the core infrastructure of the Inter portal. MySQL is a core piece of the contentgeneration system for many large users. Open source databases are typically available for free or for a nominal charge and include the plete source code. Finally, in accordance with the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), users typically have the freedom to change any part of the source code and use it without charge as long as they publish the change. Once published, the change can be used by anyone. An alternative arrangement is the Berkeley Software Development licence which is used by . Developers can use, copy, modify, and distribute this software free of cost. There is an array of open source databases. Firebird, based on Borland?s venerable Int