Continuent

What is Continuent Tungsten Cluster?

Tungsten Cluster is an enterprise-grade MySQL and MariaDB high availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR), and geo-scale clustering solution. Built by Continuent since 2004, it provides automatic failover, zero-downtime maintenance, and active-active or active-passive replication across on-premises, cloud, hybrid-cloud, and multi-cloud environments.

What databases does Tungsten Cluster support?

Tungsten Cluster supports MySQL, MariaDB, and Percona Server. It works with standard MySQL-compatible databases and can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure), or in hybrid and multi-cloud configurations.

How does Tungsten Cluster provide MySQL high availability?

Tungsten Cluster provides high availability through automatic failover, recovery, and failback with intelligent traffic re-routing to the nearest available data center. It supports four deployment topologies: Standalone HA (STA) for single-region HA, Composite Active/Passive (CAP) for HA plus disaster recovery, Composite Active/Active (CAA) for multi-site writable clusters with geo-scaling, and Dynamic Active/Active (DAA) for active-active benefits with active-passive simplicity.

How is Tungsten Cluster different from Amazon Aurora or Galera Cluster?

Unlike Amazon Aurora, Tungsten Cluster is not locked to a single cloud provider — it runs on any infrastructure including on-premises, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and multi-cloud. Unlike Galera Cluster, Tungsten Cluster provides a fully integrated solution with built-in failover automation, zero-downtime maintenance, disaster recovery, and 24/7 expert support with an average urgent response time under 3 minutes.

How much does Tungsten Cluster cost?

Tungsten Cluster uses annual subscription pricing of up to $8,000 per node per year with non-linear pricing where per-node cost decreases as the deployment grows. A minimum of 3 nodes (or 2 nodes plus a witness) is required. New customers receive 20% off their first subscription. Multi-year, volume, startup, and competitive switch discounts are also available. 24/7 support is included at 20% of the software cost.

Does Tungsten Cluster support Kubernetes?

Yes. Continuent offers Tungsten Operator for Kubernetes deployments, enabling automated deployment, scaling, and management of Tungsten Cluster within Kubernetes environments. Tungsten University includes a dedicated master class on Tungsten Operator for Kubernetes.

What industries use Tungsten Cluster?

Tungsten Cluster is used by SaaS providers, e-commerce platforms, financial services firms, gaming companies, and telecommunications operators — any organization that requires continuous database availability for business-critical MySQL and MariaDB applications.