July 2020 Summaries

Aerospike has released version 5.1 of its database with enhanced security features in the Enterprise Edition. The new version integrates HashiCorp Vault for secure storage and control of passwords, certificates, and encryption keys. This integration helps reduce the attack surface, define IAM policies centrally, and solve distribution problems. Aerospike 5.1 also supports encryption-at-rest, TLS for network links, LDAP authentication, and more. Additionally, it introduces minor features such as histograms and new XDR-related configuration parameters.

Aerospike 5.1, released in July 2020, focuses on enhancing security in its Enterprise Edition, chiefly through a new Identity and Access Management (IAM) system based on users and roles. This update allows for the integration of HashiCorp Vault to secure and manage sensitive information such as passwords and encryption keys, thereby reducing the potential attack surface and aligning with enterprise-wide security policies. The release addresses the evolving security landscape, including sophisticated cyber exploits and the challenges of cloud-based environments, by providing flexible, centrally managed IAM policies. Additionally, Aerospike 5.1 introduces permission changes for truncate commands, security enhancements for User-Defined Functions (UDFs), and various minor features such as improved histogram commands and configuration parameters for data replication. These changes are designed to improve administrative flexibility, security, and performance, while maintaining backward compatibility and supporting upgrades and downgrades between versions.

The pandemic has accelerated the need for digital transformation across all industries and sectors, as people increasingly rely on online goods and services. Businesses must adopt a proactive approach to digital transformation or risk falling behind competitors. Companies that have successfully embraced digital technology, such as Wayfair, Amazon, DraftKings, and Chewy, have seen significant growth during the pandemic. Digital transformation can help businesses improve efficiency, reduce costs, and better serve customers in an increasingly online world.

The Aerospike Standup newsletter is a bi-weekly publication for developers that covers various topics such as blog posts, community questions, documentation, releases and events. In the latest issue, it features articles on Record Aggregation in Aerospike for Performance and Economy, Multi Record Transactions for Aerospike, and a 5 part blog from Alexander Radzin about the Aerospike JDBC Driver. The newsletter also includes release notes for various clients like C Client, C# Client, Java Client, Connect for Spark, and upcoming events such as "Enterprise Database Strategies for 2020" webinar scheduled on August 27th, 2020 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.

The Aerospike standup is a newsletter written by developers for developers, covering blog posts, community questions, documentation, releases, and events. The newsletter includes articles on record aggregation and multi-record transactions, as well as an introduction to the Aerospike JDBC driver. Upcoming events include a webinar on enterprise database strategies and a discussion of IT data management trends. Release notes are also shared for various clients, including C, C#, Java, and Connect for Spark.

The fifth annual Aerospike Summit took place in a hybrid format this year, with a full-day virtual event followed by regional road shows in six cities worldwide. The primary objective of these events was to bring the developer community together and share insights from real-world customer use cases. Key highlights included Wayfair's session on maximizing Aerospike administration in GCP, Fidelity's discussion on their need for a modern real-time data platform, and Ably's presentation on designing a scaling consumer system to allow for customized user streams. The summit also featured engaging sessions from partners like Starburst and several customer stories from companies such as Playtika, Wix.com, Syte, Nokia, Singular, and ironSource. Aerospike is helping organizations meet the demands of the Right Now Economy by providing a multi-model, NoSQL, real-time data platform that offers low latency, predictable performance, unlimited scale, five-nines uptime, and affordable cost.

The telecom industry is thriving amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, with companies stepping up as technology leaders and innovators. Aerospike's data platform innovations are being used across various applications like Customer 360, Fraud Prevention, Online Charging Systems, and IoT applications. Viettel, Vietnam's largest telecom carrier, is at the forefront of innovation with initiatives such as building a new high-speed undersea cable connecting ASEAN countries with China and Japan. The company has successfully implemented an advanced Online Charging System (OCS) using Aerospike's technology, achieving 99.999% availability and serving over 170 million subscribers in 11 countries. This platform also supports digital domain services like mobile payments, ecommerce, and IoT applications. By transitioning to the Aerospike data platform, Viettel achieved a 40% reduction in TCO compared to Oracle TimesTen. The telecom industry's focus on customer personalization and advanced service management is driving growth and innovation during these challenging times.

The telecom industry is thriving during the Covid-19 pandemic, with companies leveraging technology leadership to capitalize on increased digital connectivity needs. Aerospike's innovations are being utilized across various use cases, including Customer 360 and Fraud Prevention, by prominent carriers like Viettel in Vietnam. Viettel has successfully implemented an online charging system using Aerospike's technology, resulting in a 40% reduction in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) compared to Oracle TimesTen. The platform is designed for convergence of traditional telecom services with digital capabilities, enabling the company to participate in various digital domain services such as mobile payments and ecommerce. Additionally, Viettel's Customer 360 initiative provides a personalized experience for customers by allowing them to create their own key features, define service packages, and control payment options, resulting in a delightful customer experience and easier care management. The company has achieved significant success with this platform, including winning global awards and rapid growth, making it an inspiring example of technology leadership in the telecom industry.

The Aerospike Standup Vol. 8 provides updates on the company's activities every other week. It includes a consulting partner agreement with Aerospike and new articles addressing performance and reliability in distributed databases. Release notes for June include updates to Java, Go, and Node.js clients. Additionally, The Aerospike Monitoring Stack has been released, providing metrics from Aerospike to Prometheus and Grafana. Upcoming events are a webinar on globally distributed systems and a webinar featuring Viettel's journey with Aerospike.

The panel discussed how companies in Online Gaming, eCommerce and Recruiting have successfully scaled up during Covid-19 pandemic. Dream11, India's largest fantasy sports platform, addressed challenges of serving contests to millions of users with Aerospike, Spark, and Kafka streaming support. Naukri, the leading job portal in India, overcame cost and complexity challenges with a cached architecture using Aerospike for central persistent caching, secondary indices, and computation capability in the caching layer. SnapDeal, one of India's largest e-commerce platforms, leveraged real-time user inputs and database updates to identify users across platforms and channels, enabling personalization, vernacularization, gamification, search notifications, multi-channel attribution, and retargeting. The webinar provided insights into how these companies achieved scalability during the pandemic.

Aerospike has published a standup newsletter featuring blog posts, community questions, documentation updates, and release announcements. The team also shares upcoming events and collaborations with partners such as ASK Corporation and SmartScape. Recently, Aerospike has released the Prometheus exporter for monitoring metrics and made its Monitoring Console open-source. Additionally, the company is hosting webinars on topics like globally distributed systems and Viettel's experience with Aerospike for an international online charging system.

The pandemic has accelerated the usage of real-time payments, with countries across the world seeing a significant increase in digital transactions. This shift has major implications for financial and ecommerce institutions, particularly in terms of managing and protecting data. Aerospike's chief strategy officer, Lenley Hensarling, shared best practices on how to leverage speed and efficiency in this new landscape during an on-demand webinar with CeFPro. The discussion also included insights from GlobalData Systems analyst Sam Murrant on the growth of alternative payment tools and strategies for preventing fraud during this transitional time. Key aspects a payments data architecture needs to consider include authentication, authorization, encryption, audit-trail, white listing, and granular permissioning.