Analysts: MySQLs Cluster Version Puts Pressure on Big Database Vendors

With Wednesdays release of MySQL ABs MySQL Cluster version of its open-source database, the little Swedish company is beginning to swim in the same pool as the big, enterprise-class database vendors, analysts say.

"MySQLs announcement on this clustering [technology] definitely reaffirms their commitment to rolling into the enterprise environment," said Noel Yuhanna, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc., in Santa Clara, Calif.

MySQLs database clustering architecture couples multiple MySQL database instances residing on different servers—or nodes—with a distributed, in-memory clustering architecture. Data is distributed over this cluster of databases in such a way that if one of the databases fails, its workload is picked up and redistributed over the remaining nodes.

MySQL Cluster has delivered five 9s—in other words, 99.999 percent—availability in testing, according to company officials. That works out to five minutes of downtime per year. The technology has been tested on as many as 48 nodes, with failover response times running between five and 10 milliseconds, according to MySQL Vice President of Marketing Zack Urlocker.

MySQL Cluster relies on a shared-nothing architecture, meaning that it doesnt require an expensive shared disk to achieve high availability, as do some clustering solutions. It also runs on commodity hardware such as that from Intel and AMD, as opposed to expensive shared-disk storage area networks.

Next page: MySQL busts out of the habit of soaking up tried-and-true technology.

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