http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/index/ en albert.lee@xkoto.com Copyright 2009 2009-06-02T13:47:53-05:00 http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/database_virtualization_cloudy_expectations/ http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/database_virtualization_cloudy_expectations/#When:13:47:53Z In James Kobielus’ recent blog (http://jkobielus.blogspot.com/2009/05/forrester-blog-repost-database.html) he points out that database virtualization has been around for a long time.  Many of these database virtualization schemes are built on abstractions to simplify data access, but the emergence of system virtualization (aka the hypervisor) has raised the expectations for database virtualization.  It’s no longer about whether an application can get to its diverse data, but about how fast and reliably that data can be delivered.  On top of this increased demand of the database is the hype about cloud computing, which creates an even greater expectation that the database infrastructure should also be elastic(i.e. to be able to grow or shrink processing capacity on-the-fly through dynamic and automatic provisioning)… Cloud Computing, IT Operations 2009-06-02T13:47:53-05:00 http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/oracle_virtual_iron_the_monolith_grows_again/ http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/oracle_virtual_iron_the_monolith_grows_again/#When:13:42:57Z Hot on the heels of Oracle swallowing up Sun we see more of the puzzle coming together with this week’s Virtual Iron acquisition.  It seems pretty clear that Oracle has set its sights on becoming the next IBM, with a complete end-to-end portfolio of software, hardware, storage, and services.... 2009-05-15T13:42:57-05:00 http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/gridscale_wins_best_of_teched/ http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/gridscale_wins_best_of_teched/#When:15:29:00Z Last night the editors from Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine announced the winners of the Best of TechEd 2009 Awards here at TechEd 2009 in Los Angeles. We’re excited that GRIDSCALE for SQL Server took the prize in the database administration category. This is a prestigious award and yet another sign of market recognition for GRIDSCALE’s ability to solve critical business problems in a new and unique way. Many thanks to the editors at SQL Server Magazine and Windows IT Pro, we are honored. Complete list of winners are at http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/102114/tech-ed-2009-best-of-tech-ed-winners-announced.html Active-Active Clusters 2009-05-14T15:29:00-05:00 http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/oracle_sun_mysql_who_wins_and_who_loses/ http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/oracle_sun_mysql_who_wins_and_who_loses/#When:19:21:17Z Oracle came out from behind IBM’s shadow as it were, and made a surprise run at Sun.  The move makes a lot of sense for both companies – Oracle has grown far beyond its database roots to business apps and all the way down to operating systems and virtualization.  However, Oracle at the core is still a database company by reputation and by revenue, and its acquisition of Sun is creating justifiable trepidation in the MySQL community.... Cloud Computing, Oracle RAC 2009-04-21T19:21:17-05:00 http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/industry_accolades_and_new_customers_get_xkoto_off_to_a_great_start_in_2009/ http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/industry_accolades_and_new_customers_get_xkoto_off_to_a_great_start_in_2009/#When:15:13:03Z The positive vibe surrounding xkoto and GRIDSCALE continues into the first quarter of 2009. Last week Gartner named xkoto a “cool vendor” in its March 11 report, “Cool Vendors in IT Operations and Virtualization, 2009.” We are pleased to be recognized by Gartner as a vendor that can help organizations solve key business challenges with interesting and innovative technologies.For more information, read our press release. This is another great honor for the company after InformationWeek named us “Startup of the Year.” We continue to see a great deal of interest in GRIDSCALE and its ability to eliminate downtime for business-critical applications. In fact, today we announced another new customer, BNSF Railway Company, which operates one of the largest North American rail networks with 32,000 route miles in 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF chose GRIDSCALE to provide continuous availability and scalability for the company’s most critical DB2 applications. For more information, read our press release. GRIDSCALE is also gaining momentum for organizations using SQL Server. Read about GRIDSCALE at sswug.org and sqlblog.com. The next several months will continue to be extremely busy as we gear up for the European PASS Conference, April 22-24 in Neuss, Germany; IDUG 2009, May 11-15 in Denver and TechEd 2009, May 11-15 in Los Angeles. If you plan on being at any of these shows, make sure you stop by and see us. xkoto, IT Operations, GRIDSCALE 2009-03-17T15:13:03-05:00 http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/live_webinar_on_availability_technologies_for_ibm_db2/ http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/live_webinar_on_availability_technologies_for_ibm_db2/#When:17:52:53Z Update: This Webinar has taken place already. In case you missed it, watch our On Demand Webinar today. Be sure not to miss next week’s Webinar with IBM on availability technologies for IBM DB2. Presented by Dwaine Snow, Senior DB2 Evangelist from IBM and Ariff Kassam, CTO of xkoto, this Webinar provides an overview of the latest availability and scale-out technologies for DB2. You’ll also learn how you can leverage active-active database technology to provide continuous availability, scale-out performance, and disaster recovery solutions. Webinar topics: Availability and scale-out solutions for DB2, including traditional clustering, peer-to-peer replication, partitioning, log shipping and active-active technologies Deployment and cost considerations GRIDSCALE for DB2 active-active database clustering IBM DB2, GRIDSCALE 2009-03-03T17:52:53-05:00 http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/you_cant_always_bank_on_replication_but_you_can_depend_on_database_virtuali/ http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/you_cant_always_bank_on_replication_but_you_can_depend_on_database_virtuali/#When:15:22:00Z In recent conversations with a major North American bank, it was made clear to me that legacy style replication doesn’t always cut it. What the bank in question lamented was that in order to access transactional data for anti-fraud analytics, it had to jump through big hoops, resulting in significant grief. The bank follows standard best practices, using log replication to keep a Disaster Recovery copy in near-sync. However, due to governance and latency issues, access to that DR site for business reporting is a challenge. This put a crimp in the bank’s efforts to deal with fraud. Enter xkoto’s active-active GRIDSCALE clustering solution. Once bank representatives heard our message, lights went on as they immediately recognized that with multiple, up-to-date copies of data available locally, reporting could happen without all of the technical and organizational gymnastics, and, accessing transactional data for anti-fraud analytics would be much easier.  Active-Active Clusters, IT Operations 2009-02-26T15:22:00-05:00 http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/learn_how_to_scale_out_sql_server_with_gridscale/ http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/learn_how_to_scale_out_sql_server_with_gridscale/#When:15:13:31Z Update: This Webinar has taken place already. In case you missed it, watch our On Demand Webinar today. Don’t miss this live Webinar which highlights how you can leverage active-active database technology to deliver scale-out performance for Microsoft SQL Server. Thursday, March 5, 2009, 12:00 - 1:00 PM (EST) Attend this Webinar to learn how to: Improve application performance - up to 85% for each instance of SQL Server Eliminate planned and unplanned outages Provision databases as you need them - in minutes, not days Implement low-cost disaster recovery solutions Dramatically lower operational costs for SQL Server Presented by Ariff Kassam, CTO, xkoto, this free Webinar provides a technical overview and live demonstration of GRIDSCALE database virtualization software. GRIDSCALE distributes application load horizontally across multiple, active-active copies of SQL Server, resulting in better reliability and performance for your business-critical applications. Microsoft SQL Server, GRIDSCALE 2009-02-19T15:13:31-05:00 http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/xkoto_announces_new_funding_and_strong_customer_adoption/ http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/xkoto_announces_new_funding_and_strong_customer_adoption/#When:16:17:17Z I hope you enjoyed the holidays and are refreshed and as geared up as we are at xkoto to meet what promises to be a challenging 2009. We ended 2008 on a high note signing a number of significant deals and recording record revenues for both the fourth quarter and the year. 2009 has gotten off to a great start, as we closed on an additional round of financing from GrandBanks Capital and GrowthWorks Canadian Fund. Here are the announcements we made today regarding the recap of 2008 and financing: xkoto Reports Significant Customer and Revenue Growth in 2008; Ends Year on High Note with Record Fourth Quarter xkoto Secures $3 Million in Financing from GrandBanks Capital and GrowthWorks Canadian Fund As noted above, the 2008 fourth quarter was a busy one for us. We entered the Microsoft SQL Server market, and now businesses with either IBM DB2 or SQL Server environments can take advantage of the cost savings, scalability and true continuous availability offered by GRIDSCALE. Among key recent company announcements: GRIDSCALE for SQL Server - a product that improves application performance, scalability and reliability in SQL Server environments GRIDSCALE 4.1 for DB2 - New capabilities include support for mixed operating environments, expanded transaction support and enhanced management tools New partners - Continued expansion of our European presence through distribution and consulting agreements with Triton Consulting, Emerald Software and MakeIT consulting New customers - Expanded customer base, including BNSF Railway, Texas Department of Transportation, CNN, and Innovapost We look forward to working with you in 2009. xkoto, GRIDSCALE 2009-01-26T16:17:17-05:00 http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/a_place_for_everything_especially_xkotos_gridscale_database_virtualization/ http://www.xkoto.com/index.php/blog/comments/a_place_for_everything_especially_xkotos_gridscale_database_virtualization/#When:18:20:10Z Vertica’s founder, Mike Stonebraker, had some interesting observations about the database world, and more specifically Oracle, in this interview.  As one of the industry’s pioneers, he takes some jabs at Oracle RAC and the company’s monolithic view of data, which he calls their “one size fits all” assertion. In the past, I have weighed in on the downsides of RAC’s shared everything approach, but I’ll let Mike’s observations on the inherent scalability limitations speak for me this time. Clearly, one size does not fit all. For example, innovative Column databases such as Vertica have significant advantages in many of the analytics-heavy use cases that make them shine. Mainstream row-oriented databases are particularly useful for those relational join gymnastics required by reporting and decision support.  Oracle’s Exadata, Microsoft’s DATAllegro, and IBM’s Balanced Warehouse advance the cause of data warehouse appliances. Each technology has its place—one size does not fit all. There is also an important place for our GRIDSCALE database virtualization product. Today I was speaking to one of the world’s biggest ISVs in the telco OSS space, which is weighing how to address the need to improve database access for its data-intensive applications. This is that important place for xkoto’s GRIDSCALE database virtualization software. We see GRIDSCALE as the database “shim” that allows an application provider to turn its single instance database into an active/active database pool without a major coding exercise for the ISV.  This way, the ISV can focus on its strengths and leverage xkoto’s strengths as a software appliance in its stack. A place for everything and everything in its place. Active-Active Clusters, IT Operations, GRIDSCALE 2008-12-17T18:20:10-05:00