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Hybrid flash/DRAM database maker Aerospike, which provides a super-fast new-gen alternative to standard databases, on Dec. 13 launched Aerospike Enterprise Edition 4.5, optimized for Intel Optane DC persistent memory.
Aerospike Enterprise Edition 4.5 is the first commercially available open database that supports both traditional DRAM memory and new Intel Optane DC persistent memory. This is a new class of memory and storage technology architected specifically for data-intensive applications that require extremely low latency, high durability and strong data consistency.
Aerospike’s open database architecture means that it natively supports a variety of enterprise application environments, including Java, .NET, Node.js, Python, Go and other popular programming languages.
Intel Optane DC persistent memory is currently available in beta from multiple cloud service providers and hardware vendors. Users can run the Aerospike database in the cloud, on premises or both, the company said.
Influx of Data Has Changed Databases Forever
The continued huge influx of data from gazillions of sources has changed the face of database tech, Aerospike CEO John Dillon told eWEEK.
“It used to be that the IT department built software for users inside the building, but now they build stuff for people outside the building,” Dillon said. “This came about with the internet and browsers, as you know. The problem is that the ingestion of so much new data requires compute systems to decide what to do much more quickly when somebody shows up. It could be somebody with a phone, it could be a telematic device, could be anything. Then it’s ‘What do I do next?’—a text message, a phone call, the sale of something on a website. You only have a few milliseconds to decide. Conventional databases weren’t built for this kind of speed and volume.
“Aerospike enables high-scale, real-time machine learning-based applications at many of the world’s leading enterprises. Adding support for Intel Optane DC persistent memory into our existing storage hierarchy gives our customers greater flexibility to develop and deliver mission-critical, strategic operational applications at the edge, on premises or in the cloud.”
Intel’s persistent memory—more than 10 years in development—provides better total cost of ownership, capacity, native persistence and a higher level of performance at commensurate levels of scale. Aerospike worked with Intel to architect and validate its database performance on this new memory tier, Dillon said.
Combination of DRAM, Flash, Persistent Memory Is Significant
The combination of persistence with highly parallel access to other tiers of storage becomes an architectural breakthrough for both high performance and scale, Dillon said. For example, for planned restarts of a NoSQL in-memory database using Aerospike Hybrid Memory Architecture, Intel Optane DC persistent memory provides a minutes-to-seconds restart speedup compared to DRAM-only cold restart.
“Intel Optane DC persistent memory is a groundbreaking technology that helps customers deliver mission-critical, data-intensive applications at scale,” said Alper Ilkbahar, vice president and general manager of the non-volatile Memory and Storage Solutions Group at Intel. “Aerospike 4.5 is an important milestone as the industry readies for general availability of Intel’s new persistent memory technology.”
Aerospike demonstrated this combination earlier this year, showcasing performance that meets and sometimes exceeds expectations of DRAM-only databases.
Aerospike’s patented hybrid memory database implements specific optimizations for both highly parallel DRAM and high-density NAND. Extending Aerospike support for persistent memory enables enterprises to reap additional benefits for a wide variety of machine learning-based applications where traditional in-memory database technology alone does not provide needed performance and scale.
Density Upgrade Is Significant
Intel Optane DC persistent memory’s significant density improvement (up to 512GB per module) compared to DRAM (currently limited to 128GB per DIMM) combined with Aerospike’s hybrid memory’s density advantage of 10x compared to traditional NoSQL databases can deliver a massive combined scale improvement with negligible performance impact. The release of Aerospike Enterprise Edition 4.5 follows the recent 4.3 product release that extended Aerospike’s support for In-Memory and Hybrid Memory with all-flash-based storage, enabling enterprises to support petabyte-scale database implementations.
“In summary, I can say it simply works; we can accelerate success, performance [and] low latency at an order of magnitude lower cost—those are the benefits, it’s that simple,” Dillon said.
Aerospike Enterprise Edition 4.5 is generally available now. Go here to view a video on Aerospike on Intel Persistent Memory.