Actian Eyes ‘Hybrid Data’ With First NoSQL Database

Resurgent analytical database vendor Actian Corp. expanded its focus on the enterprise with the release of an object-oriented NoSQL database.

Actian, Palo Alto, Calif., said Tuesday (June 13) its first NoSQL database combines object technology with traditional database features as more enterprises tackle complex data models. The company also claimed throughput improvements for capabilities such as queries and transactions managed externally.

The performance and scaling improvements are attributed to a new server infrastructure designed to reduce operational tasks via greater use of Docker application containers. Those features, the company noted, reflect the shift to what are called “hybrid data.”

Hybrid data platforms combine on-premise data infrastructure with cloud-based big data platforms as a way to scale enterprise data infrastructure. In April, Actian unveiled a “natively integrated” hybrid platform designed to manage analytical, transactional and hybrid data workloads from a single database.

Actian asserts that most NoSQL databases lack enterprise features. Those performance and scaling capabilities, it claims, are integrated into its object-oriented approach. Along with greater use of Docker containers, the new database’s two-level cache memory and multi-threaded architecture leverage emerging multi-core server architectures designed to scale linearly as data volumes grow and more enterprise users simultaneously access the database.

Actian’s NoSQL object technology also targets software developers struggling to handle database requirements for complex object models. Those models are increasingly used by large companies for distributing applications with substantial data management requirements, the company notes.

Actian’s agile development pitch also includes reduced coding requirements such as the eliminating the need for mapping code used to store and retrieve objects. That feature reflects the growing trend toward reducing data movement as a way of boosting performance and, consequently, the quality of data analytics.

The object-oriented approach also seeks to address looming performance shortfalls in relational databases used for transactions. Actian asserts that relational databases are running out of steam as application data becomes more complex. “Rendering this form of complex data in a relational model typically results in an explosion of complexity,” the company asserted, thereby eroding run-time performance.

The Actian NoSQL database version 9.3, previously known as Versant, is available now.

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