There's a new open-source datawarehouse company on the market with a different technology approach and a fresh infusion of cash, it was announced today, from Sun Microsystems and two venture firms. The connection is-you guessed it-Sun's newly acquired MySQL database.Two-year-old Infobright says it's making powerful datawarehouses more affordable, but doing it in a different way than data warehouse appliance makers such as Netezza. Built on MySQL, Infobright stores data in columns of compressed data packets rather than the traditional rows. The result, said CEO Miriam Tuerk in an interview, is the ability to cram more data into comparably smaller, cheaper hardware boxes, and comb through it more swiftly than the gazillions-of-rows approach. Infobright customers, she said, can expect to be able to mine 10 terabytes of data in a $15,000 box.

Sounds good in theory, right? I assume the smart tech guys and gals over at Sun did the due diligence and examined Infobright's technology claims, because they've joined Flybridge Capital Partners and RBC Venture Partners in making a $10 million investment in the company. Going forward, Sun and Infobright plan to work more closely together on sales and marketing of the MySQL-based data warehouse, the companies said today. Sun acquired MySQL AB in January for $1 billion.

Infobright's customer list includes Xerox, Yahoo's BlueLithium, and Royal Bank of Canada. Today's funding announcement coincides with an effort to drum up interest in the company among open source enthusiasts, with the offer of a free version of its datawarehouse, Infobright Community Edition (ICE), downloadable at its Web site. Infobright says ICE can handle up to 30 Terabytes of data. (The free version, of course, doesn't come with the support, warranties, special features, and other things businesses get when the pay for the software).

Infobright is also offering a community and development portal at its Website. Any business intelligence applications that works on MySQL works with Infobright, Tuerk says, adding that customers are using Business Objects, SAS, and the BI tools of open-source company Pentahoe.