MySQL Puts Linux Database in a Box

SAN FRANCISCO — MySQL AB extended its efforts to make a splash the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo 2003 here with the announcement of two more deals on Tuesday.

The Swedish open source database vendor launched a Linux-based database appliance and rebranded the SAP DB database it acquired from SAP to “MaxDB”. The news follows the announcement on Monday of Linux-oriented deals with Veritas, SGI and others to wrap MySQL software with major products from those companies.

The DataWare 2600 database appliance unveiled at the show was designed by Pogo Linux, a server vendor based in Redmond, Wash., and optimized by MySQL AB; it will be sold by Pogo. The partners claim that it can start serving Web sites and databases in under an hour. They’re pitching it for Web hosting and for use by financial institutions.

The companies said the $8,999 price tag is lower than proprietary database alternatives, due to its open source technology.

The box comes pre-configured with MySQL Pro database versions 4.0 and 4.1 running on the latest Linux kernel. MySQL AB optimized the code for enterprise-strength work, such as transactional InnoDB support, and certified it for ACID compliance. For its part, Redmond, Wash.-based Pogo, the first MySQL certified hardware partner, optimized the hardware for speed and performance. The appliance runs on two Intel Xeon processors and a RAID Level 10 SCSI-disk array platform.

At the same time, MySQL AB announced that the SAP enterprise-level open source database it licensed from SAP AG would come on the market in the fourth quarter as MaxDB. MaxDB will be designed to facilitate migration between it and the MySQL database, and users will be able to build applications using both databases together. As an SAP Global Technology Partner, MySQL AB is working with SAP to develop new open source database technologies. MySQL is handling product management for MaxDB, and both companies will sell the product.