xkoto, the database virtualization company, has announced the availability of GRIDSCALE 5.1, the latest release of its active-active solution for IBM DB2.

GRIDSCALE 5.1 features a new cluster management system that improves the performance of online transaction processing (OLTP) applications. The product also is now available on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), delivering the first cloud-based scale-out solution for DB2. With GRIDSCALE, businesses can eliminate DB2 downtime, implement real-time disaster recovery solutions, and lower the costs for business-critical DB2 databases running on Linux, UNIX and Windows systems.

"We have found GRIDSCALE 5.1 to be a solid active-active, cross-site solution with our WebSphere application servers,” said Maj Sweidan, Manager, Database Engineering for UnitedHealth Group, a diversified health and well-being company with more than $80 billion in revenues.

Cloud Computing Support
The combination of GRIDSCALE 5.1 and DB2 is the only solution that allows organizations to scale mission-critical database applications in the cloud, with confidence. Until now, traditional clustering technologies were impossible to deploy in the cloud, due to the lack of shared storage and limitations on individual server capacity. GRIDSCALE’s active-active architecture enables multiple DB2 databases running in the cloud to work together and avoid these limitations. As a result, GRIDSCALE can prevent DB2 downtime and enable applications to distribute load across multiple database servers running in the cloud.

“At IBM, we see tremendous interest among enterprises for both public and private cloud computing,” said Leon Katsnelson, Program Director, IBM. “Cloud computing can lower overall computing costs and provide IT organizations unlimited compute capacity on demand. GRIDSCALE is a key technology that enables DB2 to scale and realize the benefits of elasticity in the cloud.”

For more information, including a demonstration of GRIDSCALE and DB2 running in the cloud, watch the On Demand webinar hosted by IBM and xkoto by visiting www.xkoto.com/promos/cloudreality/.

Enhanced Locking

GRIDSCALE 5.1’s new, patent-pending Cluster Lock Manager is an industry first. The Cluster Lock Manager delivers reliable scaling and management of transaction-intensive workloads across a pool of independent database servers. It operates completely transparent to an application to isolate and coordinate row-level transactions across disparate database servers. As a result, GRIDSCALE improves the overall performance of transaction intensive applications, such as e-commerce and line-of-business systems.

Other Enhancements

Other new features in GRIDSCALE 5.1 include:

• Automatic database recovery, allowing database failures to recover automatically without intervention from IT staff
• Transparent replacement of non-deterministic database functions, which minimizes application changes required when using GRIDSCALE
• Scripted GRIDSCALE Catalog, providing better support for dynamic SQL within stored procedures
• Client redirect, facilitating the configuration of databases that span multiple data centers
• Support for Kerberos security authentication

“The capabilities we are adding to GRIDSCALE broaden its appeal and will enable us to more rapidly grow our installed base of users running business-critical systems on DB2,” said David Patrick, President and CEO of xkoto. “We are confident that the new capabilities in GRIDSCALE will enable even greater adoption of DB2 for mission-critical applications and to take advantage of the cloud.”

Backed by IBM’s 24/7 worldwide client support organization, GRIDSCALE is an active-active solution that virtualizes the database infrastructure. It enables businesses to distribute application loads horizontally across multiple database copies, resulting in better reliability and performance than that of more costly and complex legacy clustering solutions. For more information about GRIDSCALE, visit www.xkoto.com/products/gridscale-for-db2.php.