SkySQL offers tools for Amazon and enterprise MySQL deployments

Open source services firm SkySQL is releasing its first products, in the shape of its Cloud Data Suite for managing databases on Amazon Web Services, plus the Enterprise Data Suite.

The latter comprises a trio of packaged database solutions offering high availability and scalability for specific MySQL database applications.

SkySQL was formed by former MySQL developers who left when Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems. It currently provides support and services around MySQL and its GPL version MariaDB for over 300 enterprise customers.

Now, the firm is turning to its own products with Cloud Data Suite and Enterprise Data Suite in order to provide customers with open-source alternatives to costly proprietary solutions that could lead to vendor lock-in.

Cloud Data Suite is a free-to-use web service that offers a graphical front-end for deploying high-availability clusters of MySQL instances on Amazon's cloud computing platform.

The fact it is GUI-based makes it suitable for both database professionals and less qualified users, SkySQL chief executive Patrik Sallner told V3.

"It's a lot easier to use than Amazon's own user interface, and Amazon RDS also only allows deployment of individual database instances, whereas we can offer a high-availability cluster of databases providing greater reliability," he said.

The Cloud Data Suite is currently a beta version, but is expected to hit release quality within weeks.

The next release of the product will also add the ability to deploy in a customer's on-premise infrastructure as well as Amazon's cloud, Sallner said.

Many customers have yet to adopt cloud services to any great extent, and so are looking for tools that let them experiment before committing themselves, and Cloud Data Suite lets them do this, he added.

Meanwhile, Enterprise Data Suite is a re-packaging of the MySQL support and services SkySQL has already been offering, into a set of products that the firm hopes will make the technology more approachable for new customers.

"By packaging it into these solutions, we can make it easier for companies that have never bought these commercial services before to approach us and define something that meets their database needs," Sallner said.

There are three specific solutions; SkySQL Enterprise High Availability, SkySQL Enterprise Carrier Grade and SkySQL Enterprise Analytics.

Respectively, these comprise a high availability offering for applications that call for continuous uptime; a carrier-grade offering for telecoms operators and other firms that experience a very high volume of traffic; while the analytics solution is for big data applications and is based on the Calpont InfiniDB engine.

These are subscription-based packages offering 24x7 support with an unlimited number of incidents, plus some consulting and monitoring, management and backup tools.

Standard enterprise subscription pricing starts at €5,000 per year covering up to five servers.

Sallner said that MySQL is increasingly being used to drive applications that are more and more business critical, and so customers are looking for greater support on these databases.

"We see an increasing number of customers approaching us now. Oracle is the prime vendor in this market, but for many of these customers, Oracle would not be the preferred vendor and certainly they would not want it to be the only vendor to offer this support," he said.