Schooner Flash-Optimized MySQL with InnoDB

Schooner Information Technology, Inc., whose products deliver scale-up and scale-out for MySQL databases and NoSQL data stores, announced the availability of release 3.0 of the Schooner Appliance for MySQL Enterprise with InnoDB (abbreviated as Schooner MySQL).

Schooner MySQL software transforms commodity x86 servers and flash memory into scalable, highly available super-servers for demanding MySQL deployments. By deploying Schooner MySQL, enterprises achieve performance, scaling and minimal downtime.

Schooner MySQL couples proprietary Schooner optimizations to InnoDB with balanced use of the processor cores, flash memory, and DRAM to deliver performance with high availability. Schooner-powered servers bring customer benefits that include:

• Performance, by unleashing the full power of multi-core processors to fully exploit the performance and economic advantages of flash memory. Schooner’s flash-based MySQL solution provides more than 10 times the performance of other disk-based MySQL options and more than three times the performance of any other MySQL option that uses flash memory;
• Scaling without the sprawl, by allowing high-throughput access to terabytes of data in flash memory at DRAM-like speeds, on standard x86 Linux servers;
• Datacenter productivity, by handling way bigger loads with way fewer nodes to save money on hardware and the power and people needed to run it; and,
• 100 percent compatibility, including support for standard MySQL replication, formally certified by Oracle/MySQL.

Schooner MySQL 3.0 broadens the user community which can enjoy these benefits, since it:

• Is available on all widely-used standard x86 servers and blades from Dell, HP and IBM, running Red Hat Linux 5.4 / 5.5 or CentOS 5.4 / 5.5; and
• Supports any high-performance flash memory in SAS / SATA or PCIe form factors, including those qualified and supported by Dell, HP and IBM, and from flash memory suppliers including Fusion-io, LSI, Unigen, Intel, OCZ, and Pliant.

Customers can use Schooner MySQL to get more value from their existing servers by upgrading them with flash memory, as well as minimize their spending on new servers. Schooner MySQL is available for download and free trial. Pricing is by annual subscription per server.

"Schooner first delivered its flash-optimized MySQL in 2009 on an IBM x86 server with 512 GB of Intel flash memory because, at the time, delivering software with a very specific combination of server and flash drives was the only way to ensure a great user experience," said Jerry Rudisin, chief executive officer for Schooner Information Technology. "Since then flash memory has become mainstream, so we generalized our support to all widely-used servers and flash drives while preserving all of the value of our former turnkey approach."

Rudisin continued: "Now when customers are ready to move to flash memory they can get whatever server makes sense and as much flash memory as they need. The latest drives make it easy to put several terabytes of flash on a typical server, and with Schooner’s MySQL software, they’ll get great performance against data sets of any size. Schooner’s patent-pending innovations and optimizations unleash the full potential of flash, which is the key to dramatic server consolidation. With Schooner, customers can scale smart, and enjoy a large reduction in their capex and opex while delivering a better experience to their MySQL users."

Annual subscription in quantity one on a single or dual 4-, 6-, or 8-core x86 server or blade with up to 1.2 terabytes of flash memory is $9,500 for Schooner MySQL, including Schooner Active Cluster (it includes a MySQL Enterprise license from Oracle with access to the MySQL Knowledge Base).