As we prep today for Oracle's earnings call, the latest news is that open source database provider Solid Information Technology has just scored 4 million euros in additional funding from Apax Partners and the CapMan Group.

Rumors about the slowing down of Oracle's proprietary database business could reflect in the company's earnings announcement today. This could be attributed, in part, to the growth of open source database providers such as Solid and MySQL, both orignally from Finland and now based in Cupertino, Calif. The two companies have formed a partnership since April to sell Solid's storage engine with MySQL's server.

Solid's revenues have been growing 30 percent year-over-year for the last two years and has customers such as Nortel, Nokia, and Hewlett Packard, says Paolo Lubet, vice president of marketing and business development. The last time I spoke with Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, he said: "I can state that [our growth] is 'adequate,' which is what Rolls Royce states about the top speed of their cars."

Read into that the way you want it to. Meanwhile, stay tuned on Oracle's earnings.