NuoDB Delivers SQL Enhancements in Release 2.5

NuoDB, which provides an elastic SQL database of the same name, has announced the availability of NuoDB 2.5, which makes it easier for users to migrate existing legacy databases to NuoDB.

Release 2.5 features a host of SQL enhancements, including window functions and SQL optimizations. NuoDB also enhanced the database’s management interface to make it easier for users to monitor, manage and adjust the database. Bob Walmsley, president and CEO of NuoDB, said the improvements to the database strengthen its ability to support on-premises SQL applications that are moving to the cloud.

“Given its focus on cloud applications, NuoDB provides us with the perfect combination of traditional relational databases and NoSQL databases,” said Walid Darwish, co-founder and CTO of CauseSquare, a NuoDB user that provides a mobile engagement platform for nonprofits, in a statement. “We not only get a database that can maintain exceptionally high availability, we also can easily—and cost-effectively—add capacity when we need it without compromising on transactional consistency or data durability.”

Indeed, the new release is aimed at simplifying the process of migrating existing applications from legacy databases onto the NuoDB cloud offering as more businesses are moving to the advantages of the cloud, which include scalability, lower startup costs, on-demand pricing, faster deployment and more.

A recent Software Equity Group study showed that public software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies grew at 28.5 percent, compared with just 7.3 percent for public software companies that primarily offer on-premises software.

NuoDB’s Durable Distributed Cache architecture is designed to operate in a cloud or containerized environment. The company’s Durable Distributed Cache is an in-memory, peer-to-peer system that ensures ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) compliance, resiliency and scale-out performance across multiple data centers, the company said.

“Major podcasters rely on WideOrbit software to manage ad injection and monetization so we need a database that ensures transactional consistency and integrity at scale,” said Stephen Jazdzewski, lead developer of WO On Demand at WideOrbit, in a statement. “NuoDB’s SQL database is the most cost-effective and flexible database for our needs because it scales to meet the requirements of an on-demand world and our growing business. NuoDB gives me one less thing to worry about so I can focus on helping my team build out our application for wide adoption.”

In addition to the new release, NuoDB announced that it has seen a jump in customer adoption among application providers and independent software vendors (ISVs) in the first half of 2016. New ISVs added to the company’s roster this year include BuyWinR, CauseSquare, Docunetix, Paystar, SyncUp, Unifying Solution and WideOrbit.

To appeal to startups, NuoDB also offers a “Jump Start” program that provides qualified startups with a limited development license. NuoDB officials argue that the company’s database enables startups to develop around a “production-ready” database that natively supports ACID transactions, ANSI SQL, redundancy and rolling upgrades instead of an open-source database that may not necessarily provide the functionality for cloud-based applications.

Earlier this year, NuoDB received $17 million in financing from its existing investors including Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Longworth Venture Partners and Morgenthaler Ventures.

“As an early investor, we have closely reviewed NuoDB’s technology and remain convinced that it is the database that can best address critical requirements for modern applications,” said Gary Morgenthaler, a partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, in a statement. “No other offering comes close to meeting the need for an active-active operational database that can operate across two or more data centers. We believe that, with this additional investment, NuoDB will further strengthen and differentiate its avant-garde database and become a top database for global applications.”

In a November 2015 report, market research Gartner cited NuoDB as an “avant-garde” database. “Through 2019, 70 percent of new projects requiring scale-out elasticity, distributed processing and hybrid cloud capabilities for relational applications, as well as multi-data-center transactional consistency, will prefer an emerging RDBMS over a traditional RDBMS,” the report said.