MySQL Comparison

This page is copied & restyled from mikeg's staff pages.

"Centrally" v. "Distributed"

Distributed

Currently we have a "distributed" DB model.

We provide a UNIX shell on a development machine, and every person must start and stop and administer and maintain their DBMS software.

The good:

The bad:

Centrally

We could have a "centrally" managed DB model.

Provide a DBMS on a non-interactive machine and a mechanism for creating databases and users on it.

The good:

The bad:

MySQL Comparison

Some DBMS services as provided by some higher education institutions in US to their campus community.

Summary

  Provider    Server      DBMS          Dedicated     Specific      On-call     Cost        Comments
              Given                     or Shared     Consulting

  Harvard
    UIS       Yes         Yes           Dedicated                   Yes         $130K+/yr   Buy-a-DBA and Buy-a-sysadmin anually
    WS        Yes         Yes           Shared        Yes           No          $6-15       Disk space and project consulting fees apply

  Wisconsin   No          Oracle        Shared        Yes           No          monthly     Consulting on Planning, Development, Hosting

  Stanford    No          Oracle        Shared        No            No          $3K         Disk space fees

  Illinois    No          MSSQL/        Shared        Yes           No                      Limited to College of Edu. Very good
                          Filemaker Pro                                                     service-level contracts.

  Worcester   No          MySQL         Shared        No            No          free        Customized webpage interface

  Michigan
    IT        No          Oracle/MySQL  Shared                      Yes         $50/yr
    SI        No          MySQL         Shared                      No                      Limited to School of Info.

  Arkansas    No          MySQL         Dedicated                   No          free        identical to our model

  Truman      No          MySQL         Shared                      No          free        phpMyAdmin + shell on DBMS host

  U. Virginia No          MySQL         Shared                      No          free        phpMyAdmin on DBMS host


Harvard, University Information Systems

Summary: For-fee server Server Hosting with annual DBA and Sysadmin fees.

  1. Go to http://www.uis.harvard.edu/
  2. Server Hosting
  3. DBA and System Admin

Costs for facilities, system admin, operations, administrative fees.

Database Administration Services - "Service is charged at a rate of $130,000 per year for each full-time specialist. For customers requiring less than one full-time person per year, the annual cost is prorated accordingly." DBA functions may include:

  * initial database installation and configuration
  * database upgrades
  * ongoing database patching and maintenance
  * performance tuning and troubleshooting
  * instance management
  * production code release and change control
  * application server management
  * back-up and restoration
  * technical and database architecture


Harvard, University Information Systems, Network and Servers Services, Web Services

Summary: For-fee server and database hosting and project development with monthly, yearly and per-project costs.

  1. Go to http://www.webservices.harvard.edu/about.php
  2. Read the Web Services Agreement

Hosting of foo.harvard.edu, three levels of service.

  Disk usage: 300MB = $250/mo
  Web design work + database = $6-15K/year
  Full Design and project development = $100/hr + $3-4K/project


U Wisconsin-Madison, Division of Information Technology (DoIT)

Summary: Database hosting and DBA service with monthly fee.

  1. Go to http://www.doit.wisc.edu/applications/hosting.asp

DoIT can provide a secure environment for running your applications and storing critical data and information. If needed, DoIT can provide 24x7 availability of applications.

DATABASE HOSTING, Oracle: "Use of an Oracle 7 database with applications written or installed by the customer. Includes Oracle DBA services and regular database backups. Monthly fee." See http://www.doit.wisc.edu/applications/hosting.asp

Web services: Our consultants help you carry an initial idea through design, development and final hosting on a webserver. See http://www.doit.wisc.edu/web/index.asp


Stanford, UNIX Sytems and Technical Services

Summary: Server and DB (Oracle) hosting with monthly fee.

... is offering a new flat rate service for new and existing clients that want to host their Web site and/or small database on one of the TSS shared servers.

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/itss/css/unix/flat-rate.html

Flat Rate Service Level Agreement:

  o 100 MB, 1 GB, or 4 GB of RAID level disk storage
  o Oracle RDBMS
  o 7 x 24 hour server availability (weekly reserved time for updates)
  o Daily backups
  o File recovery and archiving
  o Login security using SSH and Kerberos
  o Change Notification
  o High capacity, high-bandwidth (100 Mb/s) network connectivity
  o Redundant network backup switches
  o System security audits
  o System maintenance and upgrades
  o Hardware Capacity Planning
  o Physically secured , environmentally redundant system facility

Pricing:

  Website w/ Database: $2700 deposit + ..
    100 MB disk = $270/mo
   1000 MB disk = $435/mo
   4000 MB disk = $950/mo


University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Summary: Good service level contract documents.

The "Office of Educational Technology" has a Service Level Definition for Database Hosting.

URL: http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/oet/services/dbhosting_sld.html

The OET Database Hosting service provides College of Education units a place (a host server) on which to develop, store and serve databases to their students, staff or associates.

OET offers hosting services for two database products, Microsoft SQL Server and Filemaker Pro.

Examples of databases hosted on our servers include the backend database for the HRE Online program, the Instructional Programs Filemaker Pro degree tracking database, and the Educational Psychology MS Access budget database.

Patrons must have a commitment from unit executive(s) to the relevant resources required to implement and support the database including possible fees and appropriate staffing for...

  * implementation planning and database management
  * database development if needed
  * documentation and support of end users of database

Additional Service Level documents:


Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Computing & Communications Center Services

Summary: Centralized MySQL service with custom web frontend to managing DB's. Free.

Offers central MySQL service. Let's users

  * Create the database
  * Add a user to the database
  * Remove a user from the database
  * Drop the database

http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/CCC/Services/Databases/MySQL.html


University of Michigan, Information Technology Central Services

Summary: For-fee Oracle or MySQL hosting, DBA on-call, yearly fee.

URL: http://www.umich.edu/~umweb/services/

Limitation: "Services listed on this page are available to schools, colleges, and departments of the University of Michigan. They are not available to individuals at U of M, nor to individuals or groups not affiliated with the University of Michigan."

Our Oracle servers provide the back-end for the University's accounting and billing system, mail.umich.edu, several database courses, mstores.umich.edu, and numerous administrative systems.

Our new MySQL hosting service promises to be a popular option for PHP developers and anyone interested in a fast, reliable query-optimized database solution.

  * 24 x 7 monitoring
  * DBA on-call
  * Nightly hot backups
  * Database space included with Application Hosting Service

The cost is $50/year for the web hosting package, which the database package seems to piggyback on.


University of Arkansas, Computing Services

Summary: Nearly identical configuration to ours.

Offers a nearly identical model to ours:

  http://www.uark.edu/compserv/softsys/sql/compmysql.html

A UNIX (Sun E6500 w/ Solaris 8), box is provided, and everyone is their own DBA. Difference from our system: the MySQL binary files are accessible to everyone without copying them to the home directory. No cost visible.


University of Michigan, School of Information Computing

Summary: Centralized MySQL hosting service.

http://www.si.umich.edu/computing/howtos/dbxfer.php

Run central MySQL server on a Linux host. Give access to groups on campus that need it. No mention of specifics like size, cost, and limitations.


Truman State University, Information Technology Services

Summary: Centralized MySQL hosting service with phpMyAdmin.

Runs a central dedicated MySQL server:

  http://its.truman.edu/documentation/faq/mysql_faq_new.stm

Offers phpMyAdmin access, and shell access to the dedicated server.


University of Virginia

Summary: Centralized MySQL hosting service with phpMyAdmin.

Runs a central dedicated MySQL server:

  http://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/web/mysql/

Offers phpMyAdmin access and a 25MB soft quota, 50MB hard quota.