Schooner Membrain: Smart NoSQL Data Store Based on Memcached

Schooner Information Technology, Inc., whose products deliver scale-up and scale-out for MySQL databases and NoSQL data stores, announced the availability of its 3.0 release of Membrain: the smart NoSQL data store, based on memcached.

Membrain transforms commodity x86 servers and flash memory into scalable, available super-servers for demanding memcached or NoSQL data store workloads. Membrain is the third generation of Schooner’s memcached-based data store which has been in production use since early 2009. By deploying Schooner Membrain, enterprises achieve performance, scaling and minimal downtime in their datacenters.

Caching speeds up data access, and the open-source memcached is the most widely-used software cache. NoSQL, which stands for Not Only SQL (Structured Query Language), refers to a family of data stores that sacrifice some of the data integrity and other features of SQL databases to get performance. Because of the widespread use of the memcached interface, Schooner uses it as the basis for Membrain.

The usual approach to scaling memcached or NoSQL data stores is to keep the data on each server small enough to fit mainly in the available DRAM, and keep adding servers as users need more capacity or better performance. This is expensive since these servers are often poorly utilized, leading to excessive spending on hardware and on the power and people to run the servers. Membrain solves this problem. 

Membrain starts with a Schooner implementation of memcached optimized for maximum concurrency, and is extended to support the persistence, synchronous replication, guaranteed consistency, and backup needed for an enterprise-grade data store. This optimized data-access layer is coupled with a Schooner library that integrates and balances the use of all system resources-multiple cores, flash memory, and DRAM-to maximize performance and availability, and minimize cost.

Membrain-powered servers bring customers benefits:

• Scaling without the sprawl, by allowing access to terabytes of data in flash memory at DRAM-like speeds, on standard x86 servers;
• Performance, leading to as much as 10x server consolidation;
• Minimal downtime, through industry-leading high-speed synchronous replication with failover and recovery of fully consistent data;
• 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
• Easy install-and-go deployment, since Membrain is 100 percent memcapable (a memcached certification suite), including binary protocol.

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

• Is available on all 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 flash memory in SAS / SATA or PCIe formats, including drives qualified by Dell, HP and IBM, and those from the leading flash memory suppliers including Fusion-io, LSI, Unigen, Intel, OCZ and Pliant.

Customers can use Membrain to get more value from their existing servers by upgrading them with flash memory, as well as minimize their spend on new servers. Schooner Membrain is available for download and free trial since February 8, 2011.

"Since the invention of the disk drive, over 50 years ago, disk rotation speeds have only increased 12 1/2 fold. Modern computing is increasingly held hostage to the I/O bottleneck of disk," said Curt Monash, analyst for Monash Research. "Schooner’s software is architected for flash storage, not disk. That’s a wise choice."

"Schooner first delivered its memcached / NoSQL data store software on a turnkey appliance that included a server and flash memory. This was necessary to ensure a great user experience given the peculiarities of flash memory and its dependencies on firmware and other low-level hardware details," said Jerry Rudisin, chief executive officer for Schooner Information Technology. "Now, flash memory works without hassle. We expanded our support for servers and flash drives with a pure software product, and preserved all of the value of the former turnkey approach."

Rudisin continued: "Customers who want to handle large caches or NoSQL data stores can exploit terabytes of flash memory on a small number of servers that do the work of dozens of typical caching or NoSQL servers. Membrain delivers amazing performance that’s 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 users."