SUSE and MariaDB (the company formerly known as SkySQL!) officially teamed up today, joining forces with IBM Power Systems, in a partnership that promises to expand the Linux application ecosystem. According to sources at SUSE, customers will now be able to run a wider variety of applications on Power8, increasing both flexibility and choice while working within existing IT infrastructure. More options is ALWAYS a good thing!

Nils Brauckmann, president and GM od SUSE said, "Working with MariaDB offers our customers new and innovative ways to make the most from their existing IT investments, while accessing the latest and most powerful computing applications and technologies."

Ultimately, MariaDB Enterprise will be optimized for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 on IBM POWER8-based servers. SUSE and MariaDB will be publishing tuning and optimization guides for customers and partners to further demonstrate the capabilities and performance benefits of Linux on Power. The joint offering provides customers with several key technical benefits, including:

• Choice – through easy porting of software developed on Linux for x86 to Linux for Power on little-endian systems, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 enables users to run a larger variety of applications on POWER8, including those developed in compiled or scripted languages, such as C++, Ruby PHP or Java.
• Hypervisor support – IBM PowerKVM and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, with KVM, provide virtualization support on POWER8 processors for Linux workloads.
• Scalability – SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 takes full advantage of POWER8's eight threads per core, allowing a higher number of tasks to run simultaneously.
• Performance – larger L3 memory cache structures provide a greater potential for computing power at higher density, perfect for data-intensive applications.

Patrick Sallner, CEO of MariaDB, characterizes the benefits to the community thus; "The optimization of MariaDB for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 on IBM Power Systems servers with POWER8 processors gives enterprise companies an ideal way to easily deploy database environments with unparalleled scale-out performance and near continuous availability."

This partnership can potentially have immediate impact in the Big Data arena. “Clients are looking for new ways to better manage big data and take advantage of cloud computing using open technologies,” said Terri Virnig, vice president of Power Ecosystem and Strategy at IBM. “The combination of the MariaDB database, fast emerging as the new M in the LAMP stack, trusted SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and superior analytics and cloud capabilities of IBM Power Systems can help clients meet these goals.”