LAS VEGAS, USA: Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced the availability of MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition 6.3.

The latest version of its high-availability open source database, especially designed and certified for use in carrier grade telecom environments, such as Subscriber Data Management systems (HLR, HSS) and in Service Delivery Platforms.

This new release enables Service Providers and Network Equipment Providers to deploy larger database applications and provide data availability across geographies in case of site-level failure.

MySQL Cluster 6.3 Carrier Grade Edition is a real-time, shared-nothing clustered database system that has been especially designed to meet the high-availability, scalability and low latency requirements of telecom applications. MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition is already at the heart of Subscriber Data Management systems for leading NEPs, including Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia, Siemens Networks and Nortel.

"MySQL Cluster's powerful database technology now has the support of Sun's global communications and media industry teams, who are experienced in delivering global carrier grade solutions and services to the communications industry," said Darrell Jordan-Smith, vice president, global communications and media industry practice, Sun Microsystems.

He added, "Many of Sun's telecommunications customers already take advantage of the carrier-grade reliability of the Solaris OS, our open source directory server and NEBS-certified StorageTek and Netra systems. MySQL Cluster provides Sun's customers with a complementary offering alongside these products, giving them a scalable, reliable platform on which to run their mission critical applications."

"As one of the first adopters of MySQL Cluster, Alcatel-Lucent has relied on Sun's database group to meet our requirements for ever-increasing performance, scalability, and reliability," said Jeff Cortley, general manager, Subscriber Data Management Business Unit, Alcatel-Lucent. "Sun's MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition 6.3 telecom database provides a robust platform for developing large scale, distributed data management solutions."

Features of MySQL Cluster 6.3 include:

Integrated Disk-based Data Support: 

Disk-based data capability allows for storage of both highly transactional as well as persistent data in a single database management program. This integrated approach provides simpler development and deployment of applications compared with using multiple database programs. Additionally, it removes the size constraints of an in-memory database.

Geographical Replication

The addition of asynchronous replication between MySQL Cluster databases provides the ability to geographically distribute application workload, increasing resiliency and removing the risk of site-level failure.

Online Schema Management

Schema changes like adding columns to a table can now be made online, further reinforcing MySQL Cluster's 'five nines' (99.999 percent) availability in a real-time distributed database system.

MySQL Cluster is available under the open source GPL license for a range of popular operating systems, including Solaris, RHEL and SUSE Linux, and Mac OS X. Sun also offers commercial licensing, expert consulting, and technical support for MySQL Cluster.