Microsoft sets sights on MySQL with migration tools

Microsoft has rleased another free migration toolkit

Microsoft has released its first SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for MySQL, and refreshed its existing SSMA family of products for Oracle, Sybase and Access with the latest v4.2 release.

The SSMA is the latest of Microsoft's free migration toolkits designed to help IT teams overcome the manual challenges of migrating databases.

SSMAs have seen over 250,000 downloads since the first SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle became available in 2005, according to Microsoft, and customers include the US Department of Defense, Motorola and Sony Ericsson.

Microsoft claims that 94 per cent of SSMA downloaders would recommend the tool to others.

The new version allows customers to migrate to any edition of SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005, and the SSMA for MySQL and SSMA for Access products also support simple and direct migration to SQL Azure.

SSMA for MySQL v1.0 is designed to work with MySQL 4.1 and above, and includes the ability to convert or migrate elements such as tables, cursors, triggers and transactions.

Meanwhile, the latest SSMA v4.2 release for Oracle/Sybase/Access includes better 64-bit support, as well as support for client side and server side data migration and support for migrating to SQL Server 2008 R2.

Microsoft will be hoping that the tools encourage more customers to migrate from rival products such as MySQL to its own range, increasing market share in the process.