Xeround
Encyclopedia
Xeround is a provider of cloud database software, launched in 2005. The company was founded by Sharon Barkai and Gilad Zlotkin. Zlotkin, a former research fellow at MIT Sloan School of Management
, founded five other startups including Radview (NASDAQ
:RDVW). Israeli financial newspaper Globes
ranked the company as one of Israel's most promising start-ups in 2006.
Xeround's product was initially used by Telecom providers
, including T-Mobile
; in 2009 the company added a MySQL
front end to its product, making it applicable to a mass market of 12 million MySQL applications. The product allows MySQL users to scale their database and achieve high availability on cloud
platforms like Amazon EC2. The beta version of the service was reported to be used by 2000 organizations; General Availability was announced in June 2011. According to CNET blogger Dave Rosenberg, Xeround's MySQL support makes it "well positioned to take a leadership position in the database market".
edition of the MySQL database (MySQL is currently owned by Oracle
). The product addresses two related problems: it is complex to run databases on the cloud, especially if high availability is needed; and databases in general are difficult to scale, as data throughput and volumes grow. A cloud database service solves both problems, by managing the database on the cloud and taking care of scalability and high availability, in a way that is transparent to the application. Instead of connecting to a local instance of MySQL, applications can connect to Xeround's cloud database, and are then free to scale as needed. Because Xeround is an in-memory distributed database, it is currently limited up to 50 Gigabytes of data. Xeround guarantees high availability of 99.9% ("Three Nines
"). The service offers pay-per-use pricing, calculated per Gigabyte per hour, with an additional charge for data transfer for large databases.
Xeround offers its service on several cloud platforms - as of September 2011, Xeround supported Amazon EC2, RackSpace, and Heroku, and is planning to support additional providers. As of March 2011, Xeround was the only commercially-available product which supports more than one cloud provider, allowing users to move their databases freely between cloud platforms without being locked in.
While Xeround uses the open source version of MySQL, the cloud database software itself is not open source. Another distinction is that while Xeround offers MySQL as a front-end, on the back-end it is a NoSQL
data storage system distributed on a large number of physical nodes - so it is not subject to the scalability limitations of regular MySQL databases.
Relational Database Service
and Database.com by SalesForce. Other cloud database providers mentioned by industry sources are Microsoft Azure SQL Database, NimbusDB, ClearDB, ParAccel, as well as NoSQL key-value data stores such as Amazon SimpleDB
, Google AppEngine Data Store, Couchbase
, and Cloudant
.
Database users running their applications on the cloud also have the option of installing databases in a "do it yourself" manner instead of paying for a cloud database service. This involves purchasing a machine instance on a cloud computing platform like Amazon EC2, and manually installing a database. This method is considered to be less expensive, but more complex, than using an "out of the box" database service like Xeround.
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
, founded five other startups including Radview (NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
:RDVW). Israeli financial newspaper Globes
Globes
Globes is a Hebrew language daily evening financial newspaper, published in Israel. According to TGI 2009 media survey Globes' market share rose 15% over the year to 4.4%. Its main competitors in printed media are TheMarker of Haaretz group and Calcalist published by Yedioth Ahronoth Group...
ranked the company as one of Israel's most promising start-ups in 2006.
Xeround's product was initially used by Telecom providers
Telecommunications Service Provider
A telecommunications service provider or TSP is a type of communications service provider that has traditionally provided telephone and similar services...
, including T-Mobile
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
; in 2009 the company added a MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
front end to its product, making it applicable to a mass market of 12 million MySQL applications. The product allows MySQL users to scale their database and achieve high availability on cloud
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
platforms like Amazon EC2. The beta version of the service was reported to be used by 2000 organizations; General Availability was announced in June 2011. According to CNET blogger Dave Rosenberg, Xeround's MySQL support makes it "well positioned to take a leadership position in the database market".
Product
Xeround provides a cloud database service for applications based on the open sourceOpen source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
edition of the MySQL database (MySQL is currently owned by Oracle
Oracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....
). The product addresses two related problems: it is complex to run databases on the cloud, especially if high availability is needed; and databases in general are difficult to scale, as data throughput and volumes grow. A cloud database service solves both problems, by managing the database on the cloud and taking care of scalability and high availability, in a way that is transparent to the application. Instead of connecting to a local instance of MySQL, applications can connect to Xeround's cloud database, and are then free to scale as needed. Because Xeround is an in-memory distributed database, it is currently limited up to 50 Gigabytes of data. Xeround guarantees high availability of 99.9% ("Three Nines
High availability
High availability is a system design approach and associated service implementation that ensures a prearranged level of operational performance will be met during a contractual measurement period....
"). The service offers pay-per-use pricing, calculated per Gigabyte per hour, with an additional charge for data transfer for large databases.
Xeround offers its service on several cloud platforms - as of September 2011, Xeround supported Amazon EC2, RackSpace, and Heroku, and is planning to support additional providers. As of March 2011, Xeround was the only commercially-available product which supports more than one cloud provider, allowing users to move their databases freely between cloud platforms without being locked in.
While Xeround uses the open source version of MySQL, the cloud database software itself is not open source. Another distinction is that while Xeround offers MySQL as a front-end, on the back-end it is a NoSQL
Nosql
In computing, NoSQL is a broad class of database management systems that differ from the classic model of the relational database management system in some significant ways. These data stores may not require fixed table schemas, usually avoid join operations, and typically scale horizontally...
data storage system distributed on a large number of physical nodes - so it is not subject to the scalability limitations of regular MySQL databases.
Company Timeline
- 2005 - Xeround is founded by Sharon Barkai and Gilad Zlotkin, raises $6.5 million in Series A funding, focuses initially on distributed database software for Telecom providers.
- 2006 - Xeround ranked as one of Israel's most promising start-ups by Israeli financial newspaper GlobesGlobesGlobes is a Hebrew language daily evening financial newspaper, published in Israel. According to TGI 2009 media survey Globes' market share rose 15% over the year to 4.4%. Its main competitors in printed media are TheMarker of Haaretz group and Calcalist published by Yedioth Ahronoth Group...
. - 2008 - Xeround raises an additional $16 million in Series B funding.
- 2009 - Xeround recruits Razi Sharir as CEO and repositions its product as a cloud database service with a MySQL front-end.
- 2010 - Xeround launches beta version of its database service.
- 2011 - Xeround announces General Availability of its cloud database service, and raises an additional $4 million in its final financing round.
Competitors and Alternatives
Xeround's primary competitors are database services offered by the large cloud vendors, AmazonAmazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
Relational Database Service
Amazon Relational Database Service
Amazon Relational Database Service or Amazon RDS is a distributed relational database service by Amazon.com. It is a web service running "in the cloud" and provides users a relational database for use in their applications. Amazon RDS makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database...
and Database.com by SalesForce. Other cloud database providers mentioned by industry sources are Microsoft Azure SQL Database, NimbusDB, ClearDB, ParAccel, as well as NoSQL key-value data stores such as Amazon SimpleDB
Amazon SimpleDB
Amazon SimpleDB is a distributed database written in Erlang by Amazon.com. It is used as a web service in concert with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and Amazon S3 and is part of Amazon Web Services. It was announced on December 13, 2007....
, Google AppEngine Data Store, Couchbase
Couchbase
Couchbase is a Silicon Valley-based enterprise software company which offers product "Couchbase ", plus sells support & training for these...
, and Cloudant
Cloudant
Cloudant is a Massachusetts-based enterprise software company which provides an open source non-relational, distributed database service of the same name that requires zero-configuration...
.
Database users running their applications on the cloud also have the option of installing databases in a "do it yourself" manner instead of paying for a cloud database service. This involves purchasing a machine instance on a cloud computing platform like Amazon EC2, and manually installing a database. This method is considered to be less expensive, but more complex, than using an "out of the box" database service like Xeround.