Oracle’s MySQL 5.7 has had a good, long run, but the official End of Life is October of 2023. The 5.7 version, for which Oracle still provides Extended Support, was released in 2015. The upcoming end-of-life date means Oracle will no longer provide updates to this version of the database.

Why should organizations worry?

One of the most significant risks associated with continuing to use MySQL 5.7 is the potential security vulnerabilities. With the end of Oracle support, security patches and updates for MySQL 5.7 will no longer be provided. As new threats emerge, your organization’s data could be at risk without the necessary security updates.

MySQL 8.0: A Logical Progression

Upgrading from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8.0 is a logical progression, thanks to the new functionality for a data dictionary, greater support for JSON and numerous enhancements. Moreover, there are dedicated mechanisms to ease the upgrade process and pinpoint exactly what organizations need to do to make this transition work. Oracle currently offers Premier Support and Extended Support for MySQL 8.0, which will expire in 2025 and 2026, respectively.

By upgrading to MySQL 8.0, you gain access to Oracle’s long-term support, ensuring ongoing bug fixes, security updates, and compatibility with future technologies.

Here are the top 10 reasons you should be using MySQL 8.0:

1. MySQL DOCUMENT STORE enables developers to create NoSQL applications using schema-less JSON collections. Developers have the flexibility of developing both relational and NoSQL document applications using a single database, without having to use a separate document database.
2. MySQL 8.0 IS UP TO 2X FASTER than MySQL 5.7. Sysbench Performance Benchmarks demonstrate that MySQL is up to 2x faster in both read/write and read-only tests. Furthermore, MySQL 8.0 sets new benchmark records with up to 1.8 million queries per second.
3. TRANSACTIONAL DATA DICTIONARY for increased reliability. Previously, database data dictionary metadata was stored in multiple file formats and different locations. The MySQL 8.0 Data Dictionary is implemented as a set of SQL tables stored in a single InnoDB tablespace. DDL statements are atomic and crash-safe, resulting in improved reliability.
4. COMMON TABLE EXPRESSIONS to help developers be more productive with advanced tooling. Common Table Expressions (CTEs, which are also known as WITH queries) have been added to MySQL 8.0. A CTE is a named temporary result set that exists within the scope of a single statement and that can be referred to later within that statement, recursively or not.
5. WINDOW FUNCTIONS to reduce code complexity and help developers be more productive. A window function, for each row from a query, performs a calculation using rows related to that row. It’s like a GROUP BY, but it preserves rows rather than collapses them.
6. SQL ROLES for improved security. A role is a named collection of privileges. One can grant roles, grant to roles, create roles, drop roles, and decide what roles are applicable during a session. Also provided is an SQL function ROLES_GRAPHML() returning a graphml document representing role subgraphs.
7. DEFAULT TO UTF8MB4 CHARACTER SET for richer mobile applications and international character sets. In the mobile world, emojis and a multitude of charsets and collations need to coexist. Unicode (or, more specifically, UTF-8 encoding) has become universal even in English-speaking markets. This is why the default character set has been changed from latin-1 to utf8mb4. MySQL supports the latest Unicode 9.0 with new collations based on DUCET, and accent- and case sensitive collations.
8. IMPROVED JSON SUPPORT. JSON support is one of the most well-received features of MySQL 5.7, and with MySQL 8.0 it has been enhanced. One of the most impressive functions added in MySQL 8.0 for JSON documents is the JSON_TABLE() function. This function accepts JSON data and returns it as a relational table. Columns and casting can be specified. Users can query the result returned by the function as a regular relational table using SQL.
9. INVISIBLE INDEXES to better manage software upgrades and database changes for applications that run 24×7 and have no clear maintenance window. Customers have provided key feedback which is that any change to indexing can have unintended consequences. Invisible indexes are a new feature in MySQL 8.0 that provide the ability to mark an index as unavailable for use by the Optimizer.
10. DESCENDING INDEXES to eliminate the need for sorting results, which lead to performance improvements in a number of queries. With the introduction of descending indexes, InnoDB can now store entries in descending order, and the optimizer will take advantage of it when descending order is requested in the query.

Additional reasons to upgrade or select MySQL 8.0 include:

• Better handling of hot rows
• Enhanced GIS support for mobile applications
• Improved performance and information schema
• Improved group replication and InnoDB Cluster
• Open SSL as the default TLS/SSL library in MySQL
• Protection against brute force attacks
• Password rotation policy
• REDO & UNDO Logs encryption for increased security
• Pluggable dynamic privileges
• Improvements to defaults
• Upgrade checker utility

Wrapping up

As Oracle’s support for MySQL 5.7 comes to an end, it is imperative for organizations to evaluate the risks of sticking to the older version. Upgrading to MySQL 8.0 not only mitigates security vulnerabilities but also unlocks a host of new features, improved performance, and enhanced scalability. Embracing the latest version ensures that your database infrastructure remains robust, efficient, and future-proof.

If your organization needs help in preparing for or completing MySQL 8.0 upgrade, our team of MySQL experts can be a great asset. Please write to us at marketing@cloverinfotech.com and we’ll be glad to arrange a no-obligation session for you with our MySQL experts.

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