Sun Completes MySQL Acquisition; Universities Deploy Sun Infrastructure
Sun Microsystems Tuesday completed its $1 billion acquisition of MySQL AB, a decision that was announced back in mid-January. Coinciding with the completion of the acquisition, Sun also made available MySQL's complete portfolio of products through its global sales and services organization. The company also recently announced several new universities deploying its systems.
MySQL Acquisition
MySQL is the most popular open source database and is behind some of the highest-volume sites on the Web, including Google and Facebook. According to information released by Sun, more than 100 million copies of MySQL software have been downloaded to date, with the current pace reaching about 60,000 downloads per day. Sun said that the reach of MySQL will help "bring new markets for Sun's systems, virtualization, middleware and storage platforms."
The acquisition included $800 million in cash and $200 million in options. Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, has joined Sun's senior executive team as senior vice president of the new Database Group within Sun's Software division.
Sun, along with O'Reilly Media, will present the annual MySQL Conference & Expo April 14-17 in Santa Clara, CA.
MySQL software is available for download now through Sun at no charge. Paid maintenance options are also available.
Sun Infrastructure Deployments
In other news, five universities have recently deployed Sun IT infrastructure running Solaris 10 OS, according to information released by Sun earlier this week at its 2008 Worldwide Education and Research Conference in San Francisco. The deployments range from Sun Fire server and StorageTek storage systems for research projects to UltraSPARC and thin client solutions for physics simulations.
At the University of Calgary (Canada), researchers are using Sun technologies to identify gene sequences and to create 3D visualizations of the human body. The university is using UltraSPARC-based servers, StorageTek systems, Sun thin clients, the Solaris OS, and Java.
Durham University in the U.K. is using Sun supercomputing technology in its Institute for Computational Cosmology to run simulations of the expanding universe. The center upgraded its "Cosmology Machine" (COSMA) to more than 1,300 CPUs using UltraSPARC and x64-based servers running on the Solaris OS, according to Sun.
Also in the U.K., the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library is using a cluster of Sun Fire E2900 servers running the Solaris 10 to provide its collections to scholars electronically. The Bodleian Library is also working with Sun to develop its digital asset management system using Sun Ray thin clients.
St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada, is using a cluster of Sun Fire x64 servers and Sun StorageTek systems for research largely dedicated to modeling of algorithms for the university's physics department.
And over in Singapore, SIM University is using Sun technologies for its Web-based learning environment. It's using Sun StorageTek systems to house its database of lecture materials and administrative documents, along with Sun Fire UltraSPARC M9000 servers for automated recovery and database management and Sun Fire x64 servers for video streaming applications. The system allows students to download and upload materials, view lectures, and collaborate with students and instructors.