January 2020 Summaries

Kubernetes initially did not include direct support for stateful services like databases. However, the development of Kubernetes Operators and PersistentVolume support has made it easier to use databases with microservices. NewSQL databases, such as SingleStore, can provide data services to multiple microservices implementations in a manageable way, simplifying the overall architecture and boosting performance. These databases offer features like speed, scalability, SQL support, multiple data types, transactions, analytics, and cloud-native capabilities that are beneficial for microservices environments. SingleStore is a solid candidate for use as a shared relational database for microservices applications, allowing specific services to use local databases while leveraging the benefits of a centralized database for complex operations.

The SingleStore Tools is a new set of command line programs that help manage clusters of servers or instances making up the database. It allows users to quickly find and fix problems with SingleStore by utilizing two new commands, memsql-report collect and memsql-report check, which are based on an internal tool called ClusteRx developed by the support team. These tools provide point-in-time health assessments for the SingleStore system, enabling users to troubleshoot issues such as intermittent query failures and identify potential causes. The memsql-report check command has 55 different pass/fail checkers that can be used to validate various aspects of the cluster, including memory usage, disk space, and CPU performance. By using these tools, customers can reduce break-to-fix times, improve their ability to troubleshoot issues, and ensure their SingleStore clusters are running efficiently.

Gartner Peer Insights provides technology product reviews from enterprise users, with over 300,000 reviews covering nearly 6,000 products in more than 330 categories. SingleStore has nearly two dozen reviews, with an overall rating of 4.5 stars, highlighting its speed, scalability, MySQL compatibility, and flexibility. Reviewers praise the software's performance improvements, ease of integration with other technologies, and strong customer support. Key takeaways include the importance of understanding the difference between the memory engine and columnstore engine, as well as smoother scaling to larger or smaller footprints. Many users have successfully integrated SingleStore with widely used technologies such as MySQL, Python, and Tableau, and some have replaced traditional databases like Microsoft SQL Server and SAP Sybase. Overall, reviewers highly recommend SingleStore for its value proposition, strong customer focus, and evolving roadmap of feature development.

The trend of using multiple special-purpose databases to support modern applications' data-intensive requirements is overstated and unnecessary. In most cases, a single modern, scalable relational database can meet the needs of an application. The plethora of open-source data tools has led to a bewildering number of choices, making it difficult for developers to navigate and choose the right technology. This complexity leads to increased investigation time, vendor management issues, specialized engineers, complicated integrations, performance bottlenecks, and troubleshooting difficulties. A single NewSQL database like SingleStore can provide the necessary functionality, scalability, and ease of use to support most applications' requirements, making it a more practical choice than using multiple special-purpose databases.

SingleStore is a strong platform for managing time series data, supporting the ability to load streams of events fast and conveniently with unlimited scale. It supports full SQL with standard capabilities, including window functions, transactions, high rates of concurrent update and query, and high availability technologies. Users can use familiar tools like business intelligence (BI) tools that connect to SingleStore, making it suitable for time series applications requiring rapid ingest, low-latency queries, and high concurrency without scale limits.

In summary, SingleStore is a fast and efficient SQL database that offers full ANSI SQL support and handles both transactions and analytics in one database. It supports distributed databases and can be scaled using Kubernetes or SingleStore Helios, its elastic managed service in the cloud. The database also supports data types such as JSON and geospatial data, and has a community-driven forum for help with any questions or issues. A free version of SingleStore is available for download or trial, offering community support and limited capacity constraints. Additionally, SingleStore is compatible with MySQL and can run JOINs and other SQL operations across rowstore and columnstore tables.

Three key points about SingleStore are that it has garnered positive reviews on the business solutions review site G2.com, citing its speed, high capacity, and SQL compatibility. SingleStore's distributed lock-free architecture allows for linear scalability, making it suitable for handling large volumes of data and transactions. Additionally, users praise SingleStore's ease of use compared to other big-data alternatives, while acknowledging that it may require some learning curve due to its unique capabilities.

NoSQL is no longer the right tool for many modern application use cases, and it's time to move on from its limitations. NoSQL was initially developed to address scale problems in existing database systems, but it abandoned some of the core features of databases that make them highly performant and easy to use. Relational databases have evolved to create a scalable relational database that can handle nearly all workloads with scalability, reliability, and availability requirements. The relational model has stood the test of time and continues to add new innovations, such as SingleStore Universal Storage. New databases like SingleStore have proven that relational databases are easier to use and generally perform better than NoSQL systems for most use cases. The pressure from NoSQL forced the database community to solve the challenges of the cloud-scale world, leading to the evolution of relational databases.

The world needed SingleStore because traditional SQL setups were struggling to handle large volumes of data and transactions, leading companies to switch to NoSQL solutions. However, these new systems had their own limitations, such as performance issues with reads and writes, and scalability problems. Companies like Hypothetical Corp found themselves stuck in a cycle of trying to optimize their existing systems, which often led to madness. SingleStore offers a solution by providing an in-memory rowstore table and disk-based columnstore tables, allowing for high availability, massive write throughput, and flexible schemas with features such as transactions and stored procedures. With its steady growth in capabilities and features, SingleStore is a promising alternative to traditional SQL setups and NoSQL solutions.