NuoDB recently released its Cloud Database Management System which supports SQL queries, ACID (Atomic, Consistent, Isolated and Durable) transactions, and easy scaling to multiple nodes. It is designed for companies that need to scale their databases to multiple servers but don’t want to give up the power of relational algebra or transactional guarantees.
One of the biggest issues with traditional relational databases is the effort required to scale them to multiple nodes. NuoDB is designed to be easy to scale, to be tolerant of failing nodes and to be highly performant - providing better single node performance than other relational databases. According to Seth Proctor, the chief architect of NuoDB:
NuoDB provides scale-out, high-availability and data redundancy as out of the box features with no sharding needed - along with security, ease of management and support for multi-tenancy.
To do this, NuoDB uses Multi Version Concurrency Control and an intelligent object-coordination scheme between processes. Seth explains:
This lets us operate in a highly optimistic, asynchronous and batched mode, keeping ahead of many of the failures and network dips or spikes that happen in clouds. We've decoupled transactional processing from durability points, so we're much more resilient in the case of failure, and much more agile when new capacity is needed or when you want to migrate running processes. This means you can do a complete upgrade without ever bringing down the database or losing any availability levels.”
NuoDB also provides more flexibility than many relational databases in terms of schema and data type evolution. It supports dynamic changes to schemas without disrupting availability, and allows for flexible schemas with user-defined types that can be easily updated and redefined as applications evolve.
NuoDB originally shipped with Java and C++ drivers, but at the time of writing there are drivers available for Node.js, PHP, Ruby and .NET. It also comes with support for both Hibernate in the Java world and Active Record for Rails developers.
There is an initial free version of NuoDB that can run on up to two machines - virtual or physical. There is also a developer edition that provides for unlimited usage outside of production. Then there is a license based on the number of hosts and how large the databases are.
The Cambridge, Ma based startup was founded by Barry Morris and Jim Starkey. Jim is the CTO, a DEC veteran and developed the Interbase relational database.