Yugabyte Releases Database on Kubernetes Clusters
Yugabyte this week announced it has made generally available its open source SQL database based on a document database architecture on Kubernetes clusters.
Karthik Ranganathan, Yugabyte CTO, says version 2.7 of YugabyteDB also includes an operator certified by Red Hat that makes the database simpler to deploy. YugabyteDB is also now certified to run on Tanzu instances of VMware’s Kubernetes distribution.
YugabyteDB is compatible with the application programming interfaces (APIs) employed to build and deploy applications on the open source Cassandra database. The query layer provided in YCQL query layer is also compatible with the semi-relational API used in Cassandra.
The database, however, also makes use of a front end based on the open source Postgres database that is compatible with SQL, the lingua franca query language widely employed by most enterprise IT applications. That approach provides database administrators (DBAs) and developers with a familiar construct for building and deploying applications across a hybrid cloud computing environment based on Kubernetes clusters.
Additional capabilities included in the latest YugabyteDB update are support for Tablespaces to provide fine-grained control over data distribution across regions and availability zones. That capability is critical in distributed computing environments that require microservices-based applications to be able to access a single logical database without incurring too much latency, says Ranganathan.
Another challenge is dynamically incorporating additional pods as they are added to the environments. In addition, networking multiple Kubernetes clusters together across a wide-area network requires a database that maintains consistency, he notes.
It also makes it simpler to address compliance requirements that require data to be stored within the boundaries of a specific geographic region using a distributed database, adds Ranganathan.
Other features added with this release include an ability to roll back unintended changes and restore YugabyteDB to a specific point in time in the past with minimal impact to the cluster. There’s also now support for encryption in transit via support for TLS certificates and a connector for accessing data in the open source Apache Kafka event streaming platform.
Previously, Yugabyte, which also makes its database available as a managed service, also added support for the open Hasura GraphQL Engine to make it possible to run applications that expose GraphQL APIs as an alternative to traditional REST APIs. There also is now support for the latest version of the Apache Spark in-memory computing framework for processing analytics.
Fresh off raising an additional $48 million in funding, Yugabyte is making a case for a document database that developers can easily incorporate within an application that doesn’t require end users to abandon SQL, which in enterprise IT environments remains the preferred language for querying data. The company claims there are now more than 600,000 clusters deployed that are running its database software, with more than 170 developers making contributions to the open source project.
The amount of data residing on Kubernetes clusters is starting to rapidly increase as more stateful applications are deployed on the platform. That shift is also encouraging organizations to consider additional database alternatives that would be deployed alongside what has already become a polyglot database environment, notes Ranganathan.
It’s not clear how much room there is for yet another database platform within IT environments. However, as developers continues to exercise more influence over the selection of database to run their applications, the day when organizations standardized on a single database platform are long over.
