NuoDB, a provider of a distributed database that offers a SQL implementation and support for ACID transactions, has introduced Swifts Release 2.1 which includes the first phase of its HTAP (Hybrid Transaction/Analytical Processing) capabilities.
HTAP, a term created by Gartner, aims to provide real-time operational intelligence to support business leaders. The integration of real-time analytics with transaction processing allows businesses to acquire immediate insights that they can then use to optimize their business processes.
The goal for all business users is to get everything done as efficiently as possible. Before Swifts 2.1, analyzing transactional data was a slow process that involved the moving and copying of data. This is not only an efficiency matter, but also a security matter too. The more a company has to copy and move the data around, the more likely that the data is going to become susceptible to security breaches.
According to NuoDB, HTAP systems are going to allow businesses the desired agility and intelligence they seek by being able to process their transactional data in real time.
“HTAP” describes the ability of a single database capable of performing both online transaction processing and real-time operational intelligence processing. Traditional databases were not designed to be able to handle processing and analyzing data in real time. They would go through an ETL process which is a cumbersome process that slowed down business users from being able to perform their jobs because they had to wait for the data to be processed and analyzed.
“I think the trend we are going to see very quickly is people adopting things like HTAP to answer questions and provide features in their products that they couldn’t do before, as well as to simplify and get a better handle on the complexity and security issues of copying data,” explained Seth Proctor, CTO of NuoDB.
A practical business example of this technology is a call center, said Proctor. The primary objective for the manager of the call center is to get everyone in and out as quickly as possible. Numerous different types of data is stored on the call center database - how long the calls are, when the heaviest volume of calls are, and which employees are processing the calls the quickest. All of this is called operational data. In the past, it would take companies a few days after all of the events happened to view this data because of the ETL processes. With Swifts 2.1, companies are going to be able to refresh their platforms every 15 seconds and get their operation data in real time
Swifts 2.1 has also improved on its core features. Over the past few months, NuoDB ran its platform with enterprise customers to seek potential areas for upgrade. Version 2.1 enhances its indexing, as well as the SQL optimizer.