Capgemini Selects MySQL Cluster for Great Britain Seat Reservation System

come from:http://www.mysql.com

Capgemini Develops "Look-to-Book" Travel Solution to Serve Enquiries
from Sales Points, Internet and Call Centers

LONDON - Capgemini UK plc has developed a nationwide seat reservation enquiry system for Great Britain based on MySQL Cluster and Dolphin Interconnect technology. Designed to meet challenging performance requirements in throughput and response times, the system can be accessed from sales points, call centers and Internet applications and is capable of performing in excess of the 600 transactions per second required. The price/performance requirements could only be met through use of standard high volume server technology coupled with Dolphin's high performance interconnect. At application level, the solution was 58% faster and resulted in 35% more transactional throughput than with Gigabit Ethernet. When going live, the system was configured with two Dolphin adapters and double network interfaces in each server to provide fault resilience for this business critical application.

"We were looking for a cost-effective solution for our customers that could handle their tough requirements for both performance and fault resilience," said Roelof Kleinsmiede, senior technical architect at Capgemini, UK. "MySQL Cluster and the Dolphin technology delivered on all of these. We were also very happy with Dolphin's software and support -- they ported the library to PowerPC on short notice. Whenever we had a question, we got a mail reply back within minutes rather than hours."

MySQL Cluster is a special high-end version of the world's most popular open source database -- specifically designed for fault-tolerant, mission-critical applications that need strict scalability and high-availability. It stores data in memory and utilizes a shared-nothing approach to clustering, enabling linear Scale-Out and high performance.

Bertrand Matthelié, director of EMEA marketing for MySQL AB, said, "MySQL is being used throughout the travel industry for these online 'Look-to-Book" reservation systems due to its high-performance, scalability and low TCO. We appreciate Capgemini's trust in our open source database clustering software - as well as Dolphin's support and assistance in integrating our technologies to be able to meet the most demanding high volume enterprise applications."

A new whitepaper for travel retailers on MySQL's use in Look-to-Book applications is now available at http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/white-papers/.

Einar Rustad, Dolphin VP Business Development, said, "Dolphin SuperSockets brings high performance and fault resilient communication to any application using the Berkeley Sockets API. The software library utilizes Dolphin's unique interconnect technology features to provide the lowest latency and highest bandwidth sockets communication for databases combined with high availability features like instant fail-over and automatic rerouting. Dolphin has been working closely with the MySQL Cluster team to optimize the solution, outperforming any other alternative. It is very encouraging to see companies like Capgemini choosing innovative platforms for development of business critical solutions for their customers."

The Dolphin SuperSockets?, library is specifically targeted at applications requiring efficient inter-process communication with high volumes of short transactions. With Dolphin SuperSockets?, all applications communicating through TCP/UDP/IP protocols need no modifications to take full advantage of the Dolphin hardware, offering users a major improvement in performance and scalability. Dolphin products support major operating system platforms including Linux, Solaris and Windows.

"Dolphin expects the market for database servers to be of vital interest for our company in the coming years," said K?re L?chsen, Dolphin CEO. "The price/performance level that can be achieved through use of commodity servers being applied with our high-speed interconnect solutions will challenge the traditional large systems in more and more application areas in the time to come."

About Capgemini

Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services, has a unique way of working with its clients, which it calls the Collaborative Business Experience. Through commitment to mutual success and the achievement of tangible value, Capgemini helps businesses implement growth strategies, leverage technology, and thrive through the power of collaboration. Capgemini employs approximately 61,000 people worldwide and reported 2005 global revenues of 6,954 million euros. More information about individual service lines, offices and research is available at http://www.capgemini.com/

About Dolphin Interconnect Solutions

Dolphin Interconnect Solutions of Oslo, Norway and Clinton, Massachusetts (USA) provides low-latency, high-bandwidth interconnect products. Dolphin's interconnect cards have the unique advantage of enabling a direct link from a processor to remote memory in a multiprocessor system. Dolphin products support systems with a PCI (PMC or cPCI), PCI-X or PCI Express bus or carrier and under a variety of operating systems and processors. Dolphin interconnects provide very low overhead communication, extremely low latencies and high throughput, all vital factors for communication that requires frequent transfer of small data packets, like databases and computer-aided engineering. The SuperSockets library is fully transparent to applications making the software/hardware integration very easy. Dolphin products are also used in a wide variety of embedded applications and for cost-effective, highly scalable, computer clusters. For more information, please visit http://www.dolphinics.com.

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 the MySQL Server, 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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Note: Dolphin Interconnect Solutions is a trademark of Dolphin Interconnect Solutions AS and MySQL is a registered trademark of MySQL AB in the United States and other countries. Other product names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.