LongJump is the latest vendor to leap into the on-demand database market.
The company’s new database-as-a-service offering, unveiled Jan. 8, allows companies to self-provision relational database access and storage on demand. Targeted at small and midsize businesses, the service is meant to reduce the costs and stresses of developers who need to buy a database server, provision it, and deal with data access, availability, and backup and recovery issues.
The on-demand market for databases remains relatively immature, though a number of companies are vying for market share. Amazon.com made a splash in December when it announced plans for a limited beta of its SimpleDB service. Still, analysts say security and availability are the key concerns of companies considering such services, and it’s in those areas that LongJump CEO Pankaj Malviya says his company can distance itself from competitors.
“LongJump’s architecture is a true multitenant environment with a fully segmented data architecture,” Malviya said, adding that the service also includes individual role-based permissions to enhance security. “All critical systems in LongJump’s data centers are n+1 redundant, including regular audits and tests of all data center systems to ensure readiness and smooth operation.”
In addition, LongJump operates on multiple servers in different locations in the country that are fully mirrored, so although an outage might slow down access it will not totally impede users’ ability to log in, he said. The company also promises SAS (Statement of Accounting Standards) 70 Type II compliance.
All applications in LongJump’s catalog are available for $19.95 per user per month for 12 months, Malviya said. For companies that don’t want a yearly commitment, LongJump is $24.95 per user per month. Customers are given up to 50MB of capacity, and can buy additional 50MB for $49 per month.
Data loaded into LongJump is accessible via a Web browser. According to the company, developers can also build integrated, data-driven Web sites without managing a database infrastructure by using a REST (Representational State Transfer)-based XML application interface that allows them to add, delete, search, update, and view data within the database and is compatible with multiple developer programming languages. LongJump’s API also supports both SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) message responses over HTTP/HTTPS and custom JavaBean scripting within its built-in data policy engine, company officials said.