Today we announce the transformation from MySQL to MariaDB in all our cPanel Hosting fleet. MariaDB is a drop-in replacement for MySQL that uses alternative engines to improve performance and is now the default database engine in all our cPanel Hosted servers. MariaDB offers the same functionality as MySQL, but with optimized storage engines it offers faster queries and can help customers maximize website performance.
MySQL is a relational database management system that allows customers to store large quantities of data. Databases are the “engine” for applications such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc, so the performance of these applications heavily rely on MySQL. Prior to the release of MySQL version 5.5, we used a storage engine called “MyISAM” which supported database processes and kept data organized. When we upgraded to MySQL 5.5 and 5.6 MyISAM we moved to InnoDB. However, since MySQL is an open source system, third-party developers have created their own modified MySQL versions, offering performance improvements. In MariaDB, the default MyISAM engine is 50% faster than MySQL’s included version, while InnoDB is completely replaced by XtraDB, giving customers almost a threefold speed increase overall. The performance benefits of MariaDB can be observed in specific query types and applications.
Conventional MySQL is flexible and reliable, but does not handle concurrent connections efficiently. As traffic increases and more concurrent connections occur, the database can slow dramatically as queries wait in line. The MariaDB development team has focused on improving the way MySQL works with concurrent connections, and this creates a performance improvement across the entire database. In addition, faster queries result in lower concurrent resource usage.
Net Solutions has now made MariaDB available to every cPanel Hosting customer, and its a “drop in replacement”, which means the binaries, libraries and API’s are exact matched with MySQL.
