University News
CAIT's New Technology Being Used Around the World
February 28, 2008
MACOMB, IL -- A new technology application created by a Western Illinois University enterprise technology engineer is revolutionizing database servers and the way information is stored and shared.
Russell Glaue of the Center for the Application of Information Technologies (CAIT) at Western, has written a technology application -- the MySQL Pool Poller (MPP) -- that not only benefits CAIT, but others throughout the world. Glaue oversees CAIT systems that support the center's online projects that use MySQL (multi-user database management systems; pronounced "my S-Q-L" or "my sequel").
According to CAIT Director Richard Chamberlain, the projects hosted by his organization are accessed by clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Because of this 24/7 operation, the servers where the projects reside must be failsafe. Thanks to Glaue's innovative application, CAIT can better ensure its users reliable servers.
"As CAIT serves clients globally, it requires true enterprise levels of technology and redundancy. We maintain data centers both in Macomb and Champaign (IL) to provide maximum up-time of our services to clients. Managing data centers that are in two geographic locations and keeping the data in both centers continuously synchronized requires the use of a variety of technologies," Chamberlain explained. "One application that was missing was for an automated shift of all submitted user-data held in the database from one data center to the other. That's where Russ's talents and experience came into play."
Nearly one year ago, Glaue began writing an application that would allow the data systems to better work together and communicate. Since this new technology has been implemented, the data systems are in sync, and if one has a problem the other can predict issues and determine the best course of action, Chamberlain explained.
"Most technologies do not work together to make combined computational decisions; instead they only make decisions based on their own behavior. With a failover strategy between two data centers, CAIT requires more intelligence in the enterprise, and that is what I created," said Glaue, who has been a part of the MySQL community for more than 10 years. "Once this application was tested and proven effective, I shared it with the larger MySQL open source community, which allows developers to share the latest innovations."
CAIT is sharing this application and continuing its development and refinement on its self-sponsored open source community project CodePin (www.codepin.org ), where several other CAIT open source projects are also housed.
"Since posting this new application and publishing a three-part article in MySQL Developer Zone, the application has been downloaded more than 100 times. A company in Japan has even implemented this technology within its infrastructure," Chamberlain noted. "What Russ has done with the CodePin project is what CAIT does best: find innovative solutions to information technology issues. Whether it be a technical issue such as the one Russ has resolved, or effective ways to present instruction in an online format, CAIT rides the edge of innovation, seeking the most practical solution through the use of pioneering technologies or practices."
For more information, call CAIT at 309/298-1804 or e-mail info@cait.org.
Posted By: Darcie Shinberger (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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