Neckermann.de Migrates to MySQL Cluster

Scaled-Out Database & Commodity Hardware Reduce Operating Costs for Leading German e-Retailer

Nürtingen, Germany — February 6, 2006 — MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular open source database, announced that KarstadtQuelle AG's e-commerce subsidiary neckermann.de has replaced its legacy database system with MySQL Cluster. When neckermann.de began planning a new platform for the session data for its online store, the company's focus was on lowering operating costs and increasing flexibility. The German e-retailer found what it was looking for in the combination of MySQL Cluster running on Linux and commodity Intel-based blade server hardware.

When it came time to implement the new solution, neckermann.de employed MySQL AB's professional service organization to provide assistance in integrating MySQL Cluster into their application, including helping tune and optimize performance.

"With the help of MySQL consultants, we were able to set up a high-performing database system in a short period of time that meets our demanding requirements," stated Michael Sorg, head of new media for neckermann.de GmbH. "Administration of the session data requires the database to quickly and reliably process frequent, repeated read and write access requests. We have now successfully completed the MySQL Cluster deployment for neckermann.de and will proceed to roll this solution out for our other subsidiaries one by one."

Clusters Replace Giant Servers

In order to respond more effectively and rapidly to the needs of its growing number of customers, neckermann.de sought to replace its current scale-up strategy using multiprocessor systems with a flexible scale-out solution based on clustered commodity blade servers. To achieve this, the company successfully evaluated MySQL Cluster.

Neckermann.de's original 24-way Unix servers have been replaced with dual-processor blade servers based on Intel technology. MySQL Cluster is the main management system for session data administration.

"We're proud to provide neckermann.de with professional consulting services that helped get their important e-commerce system up-and-running quickly and efficiently," said Ulf Sandberg, MySQL AB's vice president of customer services. "MySQL AB provides a wide range of consulting packages and forming training classes to assist companies to design, develop and deploy their database applications on-time and on-budget."

MySQL Cluster

MySQL Cluster is a special high-end version of the MySQL database specifically designed for fault-tolerant, mission-critical applications that need strict scalability and high-availability, as are common in the communications industry. It stores data in memory and utilizes a shared-nothing approach to clustering, enabling linear scalability and high performance. MySQL Cluster is available under both an open source GPL license and a commercial license with production support.

Commercial pricing for MySQL Cluster starts at $4,995 per CPU. More information is available at www.mysql.com/cluster

About MySQL

MySQL AB develops and supports a family of high performance, affordable database products - including MySQL Network, a comprehensive set of certified software and premium support services. The company's flagship product is MySQL, the world's most popular open source database, with more than 8 million active installations. Many of the world's largest organizations, including Yahoo!, Alcatel, The Associated Press, Suzuki and NASA are realizing significant cost savings by using MySQL to power high-volume Web sites, business-critical enterprise applications and packaged software.

With headquarters in Sweden and the United States -- and operations around the world -- MySQL AB supports both open source values and corporate customers' needs in a profitable, sustainable business. For more information about MySQL, please visit www.mysql.com.

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