NuSphere Corporation, which delivers Enhanced MySQL to run today's businesses, announced the release of NuSphere MySQL Advantage 2.0, a Web development platform for small- and medium-sized enterprises. NuSphere MySQL Advantage 2.0 is an integrated software suite that pairs the reliability and cost effectiveness of Apache, Enhanced MySQL, Perl, and PHP with new technology enhancements, such as support for financial transactions, which are necessary for building business-critical Web applications.

Previously, enterprise solutions have been difficult to implement for many in this market due to the purchasing, management, and high service costs associated with traditional software vendors. NuSphere MySQL Advantage 2.0 is targeted at businesses that need a reliable, cutting-edge foundation that also is cost effective to support their Web presence. As a standards-based software, NuSphere MySQL Advantage 2.0 supports developers who are building, maintaining and deploying Internet applications in Linux, UNIX or Windows environments.

Backed by professional support services and quarterly upgrades from NuSphere, NuSphere MySQL Advantage 2.0 is one of the industry's most cost effective, versatile, and enterprise-capable solutions for IT departments.

About a year ago, Allegro MicroSystems Inc., which is at the cutting-edge in semiconductor and sensor technology, was looking for ways to increase the productivity and reliability of its database system. At that time, the company began replacing its costly, slow commercial system, which was prone to crashing, with MySQL, Perl, and PHP components. Allegro MicroSystems is now using this foundation and NuSphere MySQL Advantage 2.0, which will offer continual upgrades to power its production analysis system. The company's Web-based database system allows engineers to simultaneously enter and manipulate data to create graphs used in developing new parts at a much faster rate, according to Ravi Vig, vice president of the Allegro MicroSystems sensors business unit.

"NuSphere MySQL Advantage saved us time, aggravation, and ultimately, money," said Vig. "The integrated platform has made life much easier for us and will continue to through NuSphere. We'll be adding transactions to our MySQL-based application with NuSphere's Gemini code and are looking forward to improving our solution with each enhancement that Advantage delivers."

Furthermore, Vig cites that this new integrated platform has allowed Allegro MicroSystems to increase their production releases by more than 200 percent to releasing five parts per month vs. one part every four months, which was the typical turnaround with its previous system.

In addition to the core open source components, Advantage 2.0 also includes:

• Enhanced MySQL version 3.23.36, which includes the beta release of Gemini, for highly granular, transaction-intensive database applications. Gemini enables automatic crash recovery, failover clusters, table and site replication, and flexible backup;
• RPM support for RedHat Linux, which can be run via an RPM install and automatic configuration. Traditional developers can also opt to run RPMs from the command line as usual;
• Encryption support for Windows so developers can run queries that will return an encrypted value using Windows. NuSphere MySQL Advantage 2.0 also includes a "sendmail" utility so developers can create Perl programs with embedded e-mail functionality that is portable between Linux, UNIX, and Windows; and
• Bugzilla, a database for bugs that lets users report software glitches and now supports the Windows environment. This keeps to-do lists as well as prioritizes, schedules, and tracks dependencies.

"NuSphere and this open source RDBMS, with substantial enhancements for transaction management and other enterprise-class database functionality, enable companies to build cost-scalable, stable enterprise-class eBusiness solutions and web services," said Carl Olofson, program director, information and data management software research at IDC. "Market pressures in favor of rapidly expanding eBusiness functionality are driving a requirement for greater Internet functionality and capacity, but these must be developed with an eye toward both upward scalability and cost containment. The growing range of open source software components, including, and in combination with NuSphere technology, will allow IT systems to meet this requirement, yet remain cost effective and scalable while exploiting the latest trends in database software."

NuSphere MySQL Advantage subscribers will receive quarterly updates composed of technology enhancements that build of off these core components; available immediately for $299 per server.

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