Cluster Computing:

EMIC NETWORKS ANNOUNCES EMIC APPLICATION CLUSTER 2.5

In order to more fully support the always-on enterprise, Emic Networks announces its newest release of Emic Application Cluster, a high-availability, scalability and dynamic load-balancing solution for open-source application stacks.

EAC clusters multiple MySQL and Apache servers, presenting a unified system image. It dynamically shifts server resources, providing high-availability and linear scalability through fast synchronous replication. EAC's core technology is based on IP Layer 2 and 3 clustering, with built-in load balancing, fault management and application level clustering.

This newest release, EAC 2.5, supports more application architectures through initial support for JBoss as well as support for 64-bit chip architectures. The addition of JBoss in an n-tier architecture adds clustering options for customers who run Java-based servers and adds to EAC's current support for MySQL and Apache servers. Support for 64-bit in EAC 2.5 enables clustering and database functions to perform faster and more efficiently. Support for additional data types and functions allow EAC to seamlessly incorporate more data manipulation functions in applications and allow them to be clustered without application modifications.

A number of new features enhance the ease of installation and maintenance of EAC:

• A new dispatcher-based load balancer in EAC 2.5 supports full redundancy for the "dispatcher" node in the cluster, reducing the number of single-point- of- failures. This feature also allows EAC to transparently integrate into existing environments without having to reconfigure routers and switches, simplifying and reducing the cost of installation.
• Manual deferred standby mode simplifies performing planned maintenance by allowing any node in the cluster to be place in "deferred standby" mode. In deferred standby mode, a node will continue to receive updates, but defer those updates so that users can complete maintenance such as performing table reorganization or rebuilding indexes.
• Auto-discovery-based installation, configuration and validation features make installation and configuration of EAC more foolproof. Users can install the EAC software on a single node and add new nodes to the cluster with little or no additional effort. Again, this simplifies expansion of a cluster as well as its initial installation.

Other support enhancements provide support engineers with controls and mechanisms for obtaining status information from the system, enabling a greater degree of self-sufficiency in managing clusters.

"The enhancements we're delivering in EAC 2.5 provide more features, functionality and more comprehensive support for open source solutions than any other available solution," states Eero Teerikorpi, CEO of Emic Networks. "EAC 2.5 is delivered as part of Emic's ongoing commitment to deliver solutions that allow enterprises to build high-quality systems on low-cost components, such as AMD or Intel architecture computers running one of the many flavors of Linux, as well as MySQL databases and Apache and JBoss servers."

"Emic is going beyond just being a database clustering solution company and becoming an application-focused clustering solution. They're definitely going up the chain to offer more integration between the elements of this stack. This is very essential, especially in the open-source arena, where questions about availability and scalability are always on the minds of CIOs," said Noel Yuhanna, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., in Santa Clara, CA.

Pricing and Availability

EAC version 2.5 becomes available to customers beginning in Q4 2004. Emic Application Cluster is priced on a per-server and per-CPU basis, with pricing starting at $1,495.00.