Database's are crucial for internet and it is also one of the biggest bottleneck when it comes to website speeds. The most commonly used free, open-source database MySQL is also slow when not properly configured, optimized and fine tuned and is the reason behind various forks aimed to offer faster performance and reliability.

Addressing the performance bottleneck, a new next-generation wire-compatible MySQL replacement is now available for download. Suitably named "MemSQL", it removes the most common bottleneck "disk" from the equation for an in-memory data tier with ultra low latency and unparalleled database speed.

MemSQL places data into memory and translates SQL into C++ for the utmost optimization in query execution. MemSQL is not only 30 times faster and safer (data durability) then MySQL but also takes only 30 seconds to install as it is fully compatible with MySQL offering a fully relational interface with all the existing powerful SQL features.

All popular blogging platforms and Content Management Systems (CMS) like Drupal, Wordpress and Joomla make extensive use of database back-end and having a fine-tuned database server is crucial to achieve optimal performance on these. As the saying goes "one size does not fit all" the default my.cnf which comes with MySQL server needs fixing as per your scripts requirements and hardware configuration, thankfully we do have free tools to get this done effectively and easily.

Today, I will be showing two scripts and a simple tip which will help us optimize our databases to achieve maximum performance - before proceeding do keep in mind that this is quite advanced as it requires editing database configuration files and working via shell access to linux root on your server.