Schooner Information Technology, Inc., a provider of data access appliances for information-intensive Web 2.0 and cloud computing datacenters, has announced the company is collaborating with IBM to provide fully integrated data access appliances that reduce the "high cost, complexity and inefficiencies" it says are "rampant" in today's information-intensive datacenters.

Schooner also announced the first two products in a family of data access appliances through the IBM collaboration: the Schooner Appliance for MySQL Enterprise and the Schooner Appliance for Memcached. Built on IBM System x server technology, Schooner's integrated data access appliances provide dynamic infrastructure solutions that offer more flexible, energy efficient and cost-effective IT solutions for businesses.

"It was natural that we aligned with IBM," said Michael Pray, vice president of sales and marketing for Schooner. "Each party brings significant benefits to the relationship. By leveraging IBM's proven server platform, global reach and world-class sales and support resources, Schooner can bring its breakthrough technology to customers worldwide who are trying to solve scale-out data center challenges."

Under the guidance of the IBM Venture Capital Group, Schooner partnered with the IBM System x group for server technology, co-branded sales and after-market support. With one of the leading server solutions available, IBM has a deep understanding of cutting-edge architecture and system solutions that meet key customer needs that support the IBM Smarter Planet initiative.

"IBM is dedicated to addressing the biggest challenges facing today's datacenters. By collaborating with innovative organizations such as Schooner, IBM is able to bring the highest level of value to our customers," said Roland Hagan, vice president of System x servers at IBM. "At the same time, IBM gains access to leading-edge solutions that meet specific customer needs in Web 2.0 and cloud computing datacenters. IBM can work with a nimble, cost-effective Silicon Valley start-up that leverages the proven IBM System x platform to create a highly innovative line of datacenter appliances."

"The performance issues, massive data growth, and energy inefficiencies associated with Web 2.0 and data-intensive enterprises are crippling businesses," said Dr. John Busch, president and chief executive officer of Schooner. "It was seeing these pain points that led Schooner to create a new generation of data access appliances-ones that yield companies up to eight times performance improvement and cut total cost of ownership up to 60 percent. The collaboration with IBM will help bring the performance, energy and cost saving benefits of Schooner's products to an extremely broad base of customers."

About Schooner Information Technology, Inc.

Schooner Information Technology provides data access appliances for information-intensive Web 2.0 and cloud computing datacenters. Schooner solutions are fast, scalable, cost-effective and green, the company says. Schooner customers save power and space, reduce TCO, and create new business opportunities based on rapid access to terabyte-scale data. The company has its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, and is venture funded by CMEA and Redpoint. For more information, please visit: http://www.schoonerinfotech.com.