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Seagate Personal Server Gets Boost in Efficiency and Performance with db4o

SAN MATEO, Calif., Nov. 09, 2006 - db4objects (www.db4o.com), creator of the leading open source object database for Java and .NET, today announced that it has released a case study on the use of db4o by Seagate Technology, the world's leading hard disc drive and consumer storage supplier, in its Mirra line of consumer electronic products. The case study is available for download here.

The Mirra Sync and Share Personal Server is a data access and management solution that includes an always-on networked appliance, powerful Macintosh and Windows PC software, and a free online web service. Mirra enables small businesses, home offices, and connected families to automatically back up and protect their digital data, remotely access it over the Internet with full encryption, synchronize files among multiple computers, and share digital content freely with anyone, anywhere, any time.

Seagate recently gave its Mirra Servers a makeover, including a new design, Mac compatibility, and a boost in capacity and performance. db4o played a key role in improving the product's performance and scalability.

"The goal in developing our second-generation Mirra Sync and Share Personal Server was to further enhance our backup and data protection capabilities for consumers and small business owners," said Bret Savage, chief architect of the Seagate Mirra solution.

"One key element was working with db4o", said Savage, "to help us re-architect our database, leveraging its query strengths, so the Personal Server could back up more data and use fewer system resources, ultimately providing more efficiency for our customers." Seagate evaluated a number of options for its redesign. Its Mirra client software is written in C# .NET, so the company looked for an object database solution that would be compatible.

"db4o was the most natural fit as its implementation was much better suited for Windows applications," Savage said. "db4o was embedded in the sense that it functioned as part of Mirra's client desktop package, rather than as a separate application and that is what was important to us. With db4o's help, we were able to install and uninstall Mirra easily without being entangled with other products."

High Scores on Support, Reliability

Equally important were the flexibility and support that db4o provided for Savage and his development team. Seagate relied on db4o's quick and efficient response on advanced configuration options to test, integrate, and ultimately help boost performance of the Mirra Sync and Share Personal Server.

"If I had a problem, db4o would make me a custom build to fix it," said Savage. "db4o helped us streamline our reliability testing to ensure that db4o would function properly in all sorts of environments and potential failure scenarios, because as a backup program for critical business and consumer data, the Mirra Sync and Share Personal Server requires 100 percent reliability."

Savage sums up Mirra's experience with db4o by saying, "I would definitely endorse db4o's use in commercial Windows software due to its performance, both in terms of memory overhead and transactional latency; its scalability in terms of how many items you can put in the database; and its solid reliability. But the overall endorsement comes down to db4o's support, because if you hit a snag, the db4o team works with you to overcome it. That's solid customer support."

About db4objects, Inc
db4objects, Inc (www.db4o.com) provides db4o, the only native object database for both Java and .NET, available under open source and commercial licenses. 15,000 registered community members and more than 600,000 downloads make db4o the world's most popular object database. db4o is used by some of the world's most innovative companies, including Boeing, BMW, Bosch, Seagate, and Intel. db4objects is a privately held company based in San Mateo, California, and backed by noted Silicon Valley luminaries including Mark Leslie, founding CEO of Veritas, Jerry Fiddler, founding CEO of Wind River, and Vinod Khosla, founding CEO of SUN Microsystems.

Press and analyst contacts: press@db4o.com

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