Ingres Icebreaker - Actian

Ingres Icebreaker
Ingres Corporation is introducing Ingres Icebreaker, a new package designed to
simplify the deployment and maintenance of database services, greatly reducing
the cost and overhead traditionally experienced by IT organizations.
What is Ingres Icebreaker
Ingres Icebreaker is the first enterprise-class database with a fully integrated operating system. Ingres Icebreaker
includes only the components of the GNU/Linux operating system necessary to allow the Ingres database to run
on server hardware, eliminating the need for a general-purpose operating system. This integrated software unit
provides everything needed to run Ingres 2006 on any x86-based server. Ingres Icebreaker is installed with a
single installation process, and is maintained with a single, integrated maintenance stream, eliminating the need to
apply separate operating system and database software maintenance.
B A C K G R O U N D E R
Why was Ingres Icebreaker created
Most of today’s software infrastructure is built by customers in a traditional method of deploying generalpurpose
operating systems and then deploying multiple instantiations of infrastructure software on top of that
operating system. (Figure 1)
Unfortunately, this traditional deployment method results in traditional issues. IT organizations are constantly
bombarded with conflicts in patch sets and maintenance streams. Applying a fix to the operating system to
correct a deficiency in one of the deployed stacks may cause adverse issues with other parts of the stack.
Additionally, IT organizations are required to independently integrate the software fixes for each of the layers
within the software stack. (Figure 2)
Figure 1
Figure 2
By combining two of the key components, the operating system and the database, into a single layer, Ingres
is able to significantly reduce the impact of customer-integrated maintenance streams. (Figure 3) Ingres takes
responsibility for delivering a single maintenance stream that is applied to both the operating system and the
database software, eliminating one of the most common causes of maintenance problems and costs. (Figure 4)
Another significant characteristic of Ingres Icebreaker is its ability to reduce effort and costs associated with
software installation. A single installation process is provided to the administrator which installs the operating
system and database as a single software image. The requirement to independently install an operating system
and then database software is eliminated.

Ingres
Ingres
Figure 3
Finally, the framework used by Ingres Icebreaker is
extensible allowing 3rd parties to build integrated
installation and maintenance streams on top of Ingres
Icebreaker. The same benefits afforded by Ingres
Icebreaker are available beyond the Ingres database
environment and can be extended to non-Ingres
software as well.
What benefits does Ingres
Icebreaker provide
The primary benefits provided by Ingres Icebreaker
include:
• Lower acquisition costs are achieved by eliminating
traditional license fees associated with operating
systems and enterprise-class databases.
• Lower administration costs are achieved by
integrating operating system and database
maintenance streams into a single, unified
maintenance stream.
• Lower maintenance costs are achieved by combining
the operating system and database software into a
single, certified maintenance stream.
• Higher reliability is achieved by segregating
general-purpose computing software from database
infrastructure software.
• Higher availability is achieved by segregating the
patching requirements of the various components
of the software stack.
• Higher manageability is achieved by providing
purpose-built operating systems infrastructure
designed for database operations.
• Operational flexibility is achieved through Ingres
Icebreaker's ability to exploit virtualization
technologies.
Ingres Icebreaker and
service-oriented architectures
Ingres Icebreaker is well suited for use in today’s
service-oriented architectures. When installed, Ingres
Icebreaker presents SQL standard database services
exposed across a variety of standard database
Figure 4
interfaces, including: ODBC, JDBC, native .Net as
well as native Ingres Net. These standard database
interfaces allow a multitude of database applications
to communicate directly with the database services
provided by the Ingres 2006 database service. By
moving from proprietary interfaces and languages
to standard, broadly-known and understood interfaces,
Ingres Icebreaker allows your developers to
concentrate on application development rather than
database administration and the use of proprietary
database extensions.
What is the price point for Ingres Icebreaker
Ingres includes the operating system at no additional
support cost to the end customer. Ingres Icebreaker will
be available as a no-license fee open-source product.
The standard support subscription for Ingres 2006
will include the features of Ingres Icebreaker. Whether
you want to deploy Ingres Icebreaker, with its included
operating system, or standard Ingres 2006 on your
own general-purpose operating system, the support
subscription cost is the same.
Ingres Icebreaker saves you money and resources
across the board, from acquisition through repeated
deployments. Ingres Icebreaker gives you everything
you need to provide robust, enterprise-strength
data services, with a clean, transparent support fee
structure and no license costs.
Ingres Corporation
500 Arguello Street, Suite 200
Redwood City, CA 94063
Tel: (650) 587-5500 Email: info@ingres.com
www.ingres.com