97% of US database systems still run obsolete software

Nearly all US database administrators surveyed for Percona’s latest State of Open Source Database Management Report said their organizations run at least some obsolete software. The report suggests this is not simply a failure to upgrade: moving a production database can become a risky, cross-stack migration involving engineering time, testing, infrastructure changes, cloud changes, software and subscriptions.

Cost is a major barrier. Cloud costs were the biggest obstacle for 31% of respondents, followed by licensing costs at 23%, tool sprawl at 17% and vendor lock-in at 12%. The report cites MySQL as an example, saying the architectural changes in 8.0 made upgrading from 5.7 particularly difficult.

Percona also warns that remaining on unsupported database management software creates security risks, especially because databases may contain valuable and confidential information. Respondents cited inefficiency as a current drawback in 42% of cases, while downtime affected 40% and latency affected 35%.

The report’s proposed first step is for organizations to plan migrations instead of continuing to postpone them. It says that beginning the process could help companies consolidate their technology stacks and improve efficiency and costs. TechRadar reported the findings, which are attributed to Percona’s report.