Introduction
Certigna is a trust service provider (TSP) authorized under European Union regulations to issue cybersecurity certificates to entities seeking website authentication, encryption, electronic signature, and electronic timestamp solutions. The company has some 20,000 customers in France including major government organizations such as tax authorities and social security.
The MySQL Community Edition distributed database underpinning its multi-site architecture. With test and development servers in two data centers and duplicate procedures, the company soon found that it needed a more robust clustering solution with automatic replication ensuring maximum uptime and enhanced trouble shooting.
After merging with French document management group Tessi in 2017, Certigna decided to invest in a maximum availability architecture with lower administrative overhead and professional support, upgrading from MySQL Community Edition to MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition.
Business Challenges & Goals
- Meet customer demand for secure sockets layer (SSL) website certificates and electronic document handling by easing administrative overhead and boosting database performance.
- Gain enhanced granular visibility of query performance and ability to fine-tune databases to guarantee maximum levels of connectivity for customers requiring authorized certification of digital security solutions.
- Adopt a robust clustering solution that ensures maximum uptime of production servers and enhanced troubleshooting capabilities so that customers obtain cybersecurity certificates with maximum availability.
- Increase data security and database monitoring capabilities through cluster configuration of databases and automatic replication of backup and restore across servers.
Business Results & Metrics
- Deployed a MySQL NDB Cluster solution with read-write replication across four servers in two locations, providing 99.999% database availability and massive gains in database management and monitoring time.
- Ensured maximum availability of database access for organizations and individuals wishing to acquire cybersecurity certificates for website security and electronic document protection.
- Eliminated the risks of database downtime previously resulting from manual configuration by controlling the entire cluster as a single entity and maximizing availability of customer cyber security certificates.
- Gained visibility on query performance when testing new apps by using MySQL Enterprise Monitor to monitor and fine-tune databases in cluster configuration, with granularity of information and automatic technical alerts previously unavailable.
- Increased speed and safety of backup and restore operations with MySQL Enterprise Backup's automatic replication across servers on MySQL InnoDB, and replaced daily database dumps with point-in-time snapshots on MySQL NDB using MySQL Cluster Manager.
Why MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition
"MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition is a trustworthy product with no surprises and an extension of the MySQL journey we began in 2007. We scanned the market but saw no point in moving away from a technology that has supported our business successfully right from the beginning," said Julien Holland, IT Manager, Certigna.
Implementation
Certigna implemented MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition in April 2018, working with Oracle Premier Support to migrate its databases from the MySQL Community Edition to MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition one by one. The multi-master architecture went into production in July 2018 across four large double-socket Linux Debian servers with 100 gigabyte of memory.
The implementation went very smoothly. Oracle Premier Support understood our infrastructure and advised on the best way to configure so that we had a completely painless migration. One reason for the upgrade to MySQL Cluster CGE was to get the additional support to help fix bugs, increase performance, and update or upgrade," Julien Holland added.
About Certigna
Certigna, founded in 2005 in Villeneuve d'Ascq and today part of French document management group Tessi, was the first French company to obtain the European Union's authorization to issue certificates supporting electronic signatures, electronic document time stamps, and website authentication. It has more than 20,000 customers including 1,000 French government entities involved in electronic document handling and online payments. Operating under the commercial name certigna.com, Certigna offers a full range of qualified certificates for website security, document time stamping, public tendering, e-banking, and electronic signatures.
To learn more about Certigna, visit www.certigna.com.