June 2021 Summaries

Aerospike Database 5.6 introduces the set-index feature, which allows specific sets within a namespace to be directly indexed. This feature is particularly beneficial for smaller sets as it significantly reduces the cost of scanning and retrieving records. The tests performed in this study show that the advantages of set indexes diminish as the set size approaches that of the enclosing namespace due to the increased relevance of the retrieved records. However, even at the limit, the additional memory consumed by the index causes only a small degradation in performance. Overall, set indexes are a clear win with Aerospike 5.6, providing improved scan times and efficient resource utilization.

Interest in digital (crypto) currency has grown due to pandemic-induced touch-free transactions, mainstream business interest, and private initiatives like Bitcoin and Facebook's Diem. About 80% of central banks worldwide are exploring the issuance of digital currencies, with some already running pilot programs or experiments. These digital currencies are not expected to replace current fiat currencies but will complement them. Security measures against fraudulent activities such as money laundering and cyberattacks remain a significant challenge for digital currencies. Major players like China, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, India, Italy, Brazil, Canada, Russia, and Indonesia are making strides in developing their own digital currencies or exploring the possibility of doing so. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital currencies, but governments' concerns over security and currency valuation control may impact their widespread use.

Aerospike is a high performance, distributed, scalable key value database that leverages SSD technology for increased throughput and low latency. The Collection Data Type (CDT) API in Aerospike enables list and map oriented operations within objects, reducing network overhead and client side computation. This API can be used to build a sophisticated document API along the lines of JsonPath proposal which is modeled on XPath standard for XML. The Aerospike Document API provides CRUD operations at arbitrary points within a JSON document using the CDT API. Key features include efficient performance, composability, and support for complex overall operations. The library has been published to Maven Central as aerospike-document-api and can be added to your pom.xml file for use.

The Aerospike Standup newsletter provides updates and resources for developers using Aerospike technology. Key points from this issue include the release of server version 5.6, which includes significant changes such as the need to upgrade Aerospike Connect Outbound and removal of scan-related values. Additionally, new content has been added to the Developer Hub, including sessions from the user summit and explainer videos on Data Distribution, Clustering, and Succession List. Upcoming events include an Infrastructure for ML Applications in Go workshop at Microsoft CodeFest week and a talk about Aerospike's Kubernetes Operator at DevOpsCon Berlin.

The Aerospike Standup is a newsletter that brings together various content from the Aerospike team, including blog posts, user summit sessions, documentation, and community questions. The latest server version 5.6 has been released with several significant changes, including updates to data distribution, clustering, and UDF behavior. New articles have been published on topics such as analyzing data with Aerospike and Starburst, compression and encryption in the backup tool, and caching with Spring Boot and Aerospike. Upcoming events include a workshop on infrastructure for ML applications in Go and a talk at DevOpsCon Berlin about the Kubernetes Operator. The team is sharing updates every other week through their newsletter and encourages users to subscribe or follow them on Twitter for more regular updates.

Instant payment systems are gaining popularity worldwide, driven by the surge in ecommerce during the pandemic. The global instant payments market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 43.4% from 2020-2025. Real-time payments volume is expected to hit nearly 72% in India by 2025, and Alipay in China has over a billion annual users. The Asia Pacific region dominated the instant payment market in 2020, making up 38% of global revenue. Instant payments offer many benefits for the payment system, such as faster transaction times and reduced fraud risks. However, challenges include addressing consumer preferences for credit cards with loyalty programs and combating online fraud.

Starburst Enterprise, a SQL-based MPP query engine based on open source Trino (formerly PrestoSQL), and Aerospike, a fast NoSQL database, have extended their collaboration to support Starburst Enterprise. The Aerospike Connect for Presto enables data analysts to use SQL for data analysis with the help of the Presto Connector. This seamless integration allows users to leverage the scalability, speed, reliability, and TCO benefits of Aerospike while utilizing the speed, massive parallelism, and support for Trino that Starburst Enterprise offers. The collaboration aims to help users focus on generating valuable insights at scale from data stored in Aerospike using ANSI SQL to drive critical business decisions.

Hybrid cloud is a combination of on-premises data center assets managed as a private cloud with public cloud resources. It offers control, speed, security, and cost benefits for organizations seeking to balance infrastructure and software spend with variable workloads. The advantages include elastic resource consumption and the ability to "burst" to the cloud when data center resources are exceeded. However, there are drawbacks such as egress costs and potential high costs if stable workloads are run in a colocation center instead of on-prem. Hybrid cloud is best used when necessary for specific business requirements or digital transformation goals.