MySQL Database Scalability Peaks

MySQL AB announced late last month that it has certified the latest version of its namesake open-source database as production-ready and optimized it for the 64-bit Intel Corp. Itanium 2 processor running Linux.

MySQL 4.0 includes features designed to make it more suitable for mission-critical, heavy-load database systems. Its performance can also be optimized as an embedded database, said officials, in Uppsala, Sweden.

The update includes a query cache thats designed to improve performance in applications with repetitive queries, full-text indexing, searching on packed indexes, bulk inserts and other optimizations for faster query execution. It is available on all major Linux distributions plus Unix, Mac OS X and Windows.

Chris Thompson, chief technology officer for New York-based Cross Media Marketing Corp., said Version 4.0 ushers in two revolutionary capabilities: the ability to port applications from Oracle Corp. databases and optimization for transactions.

"In some respects, MySQL has always been relegated to small shops because of the lack of those robust features," said Thompson, whose company feeds call center data into MySQL to process reports for billing. "A lot of people were reluctant to look at it because it was optimized for read-only and didnt have transaction capabilities. All the major [database vendors] have it, ... [and] now theres another player on the block."

Cross Media Marketing runs Oracle software on Solaris 8. With Linux on an Intel platform, the hardware running the operating system has become commoditized, which could spell substantial cost savings, Thompson said. "I dont care too much whether Im running Red Hat or SuSE," he said. "I just care that I have Intel hardware."