Couchbase, Inc., the developer data platform for critical applications in our AI world, is unveiling Couchbase Edge Server, an offline-first, lightweight database server and sync solution designed specifically for resource-constrained environments. Delivering low latency data access, consolidation, storage, and processing for applications, Couchbase Edge Server innovates edge performance while accommodating the needs of resource-constrained edge hardware.
While edge locations can promise limitless server footprints, some environments require edge servers but may not have the ability to maintain a full server infrastructure. For example, airlines cannot house a server infrastructure but still require internet connectivity and high performance; similarly, a restaurant with digital tabletop ordering systems incapable of having a server room still needs to effectively support their digital devices and rapid transactions.
Enter Couchbase Edge Server, a database server and sync solution built on the Couchbase Lite core engine, an embedded JSON-document database with vector search and peer-to-peer sync for mobile and IoT apps. Engineered to support fast, reliable local applications that work offline on affordable, constrained hardware, Couchbase Edge Server is deployed as a standalone server that supports seamless synchronization both downstream with Couchbase Lite-based edge clients and upstream to Couchbase Capella and self-managed Couchbase instances.
"While businesses are rapidly expanding to the edge, they're finding that relying solely on cloud or local infrastructure falls short," said Matt McDonough, SVP of product and partners at Couchbase. "Couchbase Edge Server elegantly solves this dilemma, making it ideal for edge deployments where connectivity, space, power, and computing capacity are constrained. We're empowering organizations to run applications at the edge with confidence, knowing they can access their data at any time without compromising on reliability and performance."
Couchbase Edge Server allows organizations to run edge applications efficiently on as little as one gigabyte of RAM on a single board computer, capable of supporting tens to hundreds of client devices, according to the company. This extraordinarily small footprint increases the cost efficiency of running edge deployments across many locations through a local database backend.
Couchbase Edge Server offers real-time data synchronization across all edge servers, forwarding frictionless connectivity between edge locations and Couchbase Capella—further supporting both multi-edge server deployments and primary-backup configurations. Additionally, with uninterrupted data access through a RESTful interface, enterprises’ applications can run offline and automatically update when connectivity is restored.
According to McDonough, “One of the key pieces of value that we offer is you can run your workload offline, in a disconnected environment, or an environment that has intermittent connectivity, and then reconnect when you get back online or in a better location.”
An example he gave includes cruise liners, which are “essentially floating cities. So, you can have an actually fairly substantial server footprint on the ship, and then you have maybe even 1000s of devices on the ship connected to it. But if you've been out to sea on a cruise, there are times where you have intermittent connectivity or latency performance issues,” McDonough explained. “And so, what's great is you can run in an offline fashion or an intermittent connectivity scenario, and then all the devices—everything still works. When you get back to port and you reconnect to the cloud, you're able to re-sync all of that data.”
Outside of its performance and connectivity boons, Couchbase Edge Server delivers multi-layered security and authentication controls, underpinned by Couchbase’s mature, tested solution and security stack. Edge data is secured through encrypted communications, certificate-based validation, and granular access management, maintaining robust security from the edge device to the central cloud.
To learn more about Couchbase Edge Server, please visit http://couchbase.com/.