Canadian ISV delivers private, secure desktops for 5 US Dollars per month by reducing licensing costs with MySQL Enterprise Edition.
Introduction & Background
Pinkbyte/Mazzzing.com is a Toronto-based start-up which has developed a low-cost solution allowing users with limited resources to access a private desktop from smart TVs, gaming consoles, Chromebooks, and practically any device that connects to the internet.
Starting at 5 US Dollars per month, Mazzzing’s Cluo application opens doors to online shopping, programs such as MS Office and Adobe Creative Suite and equips subscribers with the opportunity to install personal apps on their account.
Mazzzing’s private desktop solution promises to leave no history, files, or any other traces on user devices, thus guaranteeing users online security in a cyber world plagued by malware and viruses.
Business Challenges & Goals
For many years Mazzzing developed on-premises applications using Microsoft SQL Server. But as the private desktop market opened up, the Microsoft licensing structure made it difficult to provide cost-effective solutions.
As the company began expanding globally, it needed a lightweight environment with high availability and a vendor partnership that would support its growth strategy. In late 2023 it made the decision to migrate to MySQL Enterprise Edition.
Business Results & Metrics
Moving to MySQL Enterprise Edition increased performance and efficiency by 90%. Syncing up the Primary environment of usernames, passwords, payments, data, and files now takes 2 minutes compared to 20 minutes with Microsoft SQL Server.
Uptime was further guaranteed by deploying InnoDB Cluster, part of Enterprise Edition, to ensure automatic failover and recovery across Mazzzing’s hosted environments. Mazzing is available in Canada, Singapore, France, Germany, United States, and other data centers opening monthly, including locations worldwide with high-definition servers for video streaming. Users can now effectively rent a computer in the cloud and have access to text editing, shopping and preloaded apps from any Mazzzing data center in the world.
MySQL scalability permits Mazzing to scale capacity during peak workloads.
Mazzing was previously restricted by Microsoft SQL Server’s pay per user licensing. By migrating to MySQL Enterprise, with an annual flat rate per server, has enabled Mazzing to offer a competitive security desktop for only 5 US Dollars per month.
Mazzing’s private desktop leaves no traces of downloads or browsing history. Mazzing relies on MySQL Enterprise Edition to meet compliance standards such as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
Migrating to MySQL Enterprise Edition gave the company access to Oracle’s MySQL Support Team. They were also able to get advice on how to keep costs low, optimize resources, and push new developments capable to further Mazzzing’s business expansion.
The flat rate pricing structure allowed it to develop, test, deploy, and build production environments without worrying about incremental costs. The scalable and lightweight MySQL Enterprise Edition allowed the company to develop low cost commodity hardware with peak performance and a memory load under 3%. Competing databases, for which multiple web services are needed, rarely achieve a memory load of under 15%.
MySQL makes it easy to build and deploy JavaScript applications on multiple platforms, from Intel to ARM to Raspberry Pi to Arduino.
Having successfully managed up to 7,800 concurrent users per MySQL server, compared to 500 concurrent users from virtualization competitors, the company is gearing up for strong expansion.
Why MySQL Enterprise Edition?
Mazzzing worked with Microsoft SQL Server as its reference database. When it developed the Cluo application the company needed to improve availability and scalability in order to guarantee near 100% uptime for users. Above all, it needed to eliminate the Microsoft SQL Server pay per user licensing to be able to offer the service at 5 Canadian Dollars per month.
“The MySQL Enterprise Edition license gave us access to Oracle Support, which allowed us to connect with the MySQL experts. They are giving us massive insights into how to use this great database platform successfully,” said Giovanni Morelli.