MYSQL     MySQL is the world's most popular open source database, recognized for it's speed and reliablity. Its architecture makes it extremely fast and easy to customize. Extensive reuse of code within the software and a minimalistic approach to producing functionally-rich features has resulted in a database management system unmatched in speed, compactness, stability and ease of deployment. The unique separation of the core server from the table handler makes it possible to run with strict transaction control or with ultra-fast transactionless disk access, whichever is most appropriate for the situation. We leverage the MySQL database on 90% of the applications we build. We strive to stay up to date on new releases of MySQL and the features provided as we do with all open source software we work with.