Technology veterans from Sun Microsystems are working on high-powered data-access appliances designed to speed up Cloud Computing applications.

Schooner Information Technology has taken IBM's Intel-based servers and added flash memory, 1 Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections, the Linux operating system, and a choice between the Memcached distributed memory caching system and the MySQL database. The end result is said to be eight times the performance of traditional servers, allowing data centres to consolidate onto fewer machines.

"These appliances really hit the core problems of data centres," namely cost, complexity and data growth, says CEO and co-founder John Busch. The appliances are in beta trials with customers and will ship in the third quarter at a price of $45,000.

In addition to using IBM servers, Schooner announced a broader collaboration with IBM's sales and support teams to bring the new products to market. IBM System x Vice President Roland Hagan described Schooner as "a nimble, cost-effective Silicon Valley start-up that leverages the proven IBM System x platform to create a highly innovative line of data centre appliances."

Schooner claims that a site with a 5TB workload can cut its cache server farm from 102 servers to just 13 Schooner appliances, resulting in a 62 percent reduction in operating expenses over three years.