Savvis Launches Cloud-Based Database Platform

Savvis has launched a new cloud-featured database platform designed to allow enterprises to burst both performance levels and infrastructure to accommodate varying demands. Savvis Symphony Database is aimed at enterprises using both Oracle Enterprise 11G RAC or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 as underlying technology.

Savvis was acquired by telecom service provider CenturyLink earlier this year. GigaOm describes the significance of the development this way:

For those keeping score at home, this puts Savvis on par with Amazon Web Services with regard to Oracle, but one up on AWS in the SQL Server column. AWS offers EC2 instances of both Oracle Database and SQL Server, but only offers the Oracle (and MySQL) option as part of its Relational Database Service. Savvis’s new offering is akin to RDS. It’s not yet a household name among cloud providers, but Savvis is one of three, along with AWS and Microsoft, that offers its own separate database service. That’s something.

The platform requires no hardware provisioning or software licensing, which means no long-term contracts and, presumably, lower costs to enterprises.

Infor, a provider of business application software with more than 75,000 clients, was an early trial user of Symphony Database and currently employs Symphony Database to support its Workforce Management platform offering.