Today I’m proud to announce the latest version of NuoDB’s distributed SQL database, version 4.0. This latest release significantly expands on our cloud-native, cloud-agnostic capabilities and provides autonomous database management with always-on fault-tolerant database resiliency. Let’s walk through a few of our newest features, including:
- Cloud agnostic capabilities
- Cloud native offerings
- NuoDB Admin
- Security enhancements
- Indexing improvements
- Packaging updates
Cloud Agnostic with Support for Multiple Clouds
In addition to supporting Amazon Web Services, NuoDB is now certified for both Azure and Google Cloud Platform, providing you with a choice of public clouds to deploy NuoDB and avoiding cloud lock-in. Of course you also have the option to deploy on-premise or in private clouds, or in a hybrid or multi-cloud environment. These new certifications make it simpler for you to choose how and where you want to deploy, and we’ll continue to certify other cloud providers as we move forward.
Cloud Native
The latest updates in NuoDB 4.0 include Kubernetes Helm Charts, which simplifies and automates database deployments in Red Hat OpenShift and eventually other Kubernetes distributions. Deploying NuoDB in Kubernetes easily modernizes current application stacks as well as build next generation applications to effectively compete in today’s global market.
NuoDB Admin
I’m particularly pleased to introduce NuoDB Admin, a new, simplified management tier that includes a REST API designed to improve database lifecycle management and ensure simple and seamless deployment of NuoDB for on-premises, cloud, and container environments.
In addition to the new REST API, NuoDB Admin includes:
- Easier database restart by automatically managing the restart order,
- More granular and simpler client connection load balancing with the use of process labels
- Improved diagnostics and domain state metrics
To use the new functionality, existing customers need to migrate to the new Admin API. We’ll continue to support older versions of the admin API for the next eighteen months, but I encourage you to migrate to the latest version to take advantage of NuoDB Admin. The additional functionality provides many benefits that will make managing NuoDB simpler and more intuitive for you. For new customers deploying NuoDB 4.0, this functionality is provided by default.
Security Enhancements
NuoDB 4.0 also provides additional security functionality, including full support for LDAP authentication. In previous releases, LDAP authentication was a Preview feature. With the release of NuoDB 4.0, LDAP authentication is a fully supported feature. In addition, network encryption has been upgraded to TLS 1.2 using customer provided certificate keys. Learn how to set up TLS in your NuoDB database.
Indexing Improvements
NuoDB 4.0 also includes significant indexing improvements, such as added support for online index creation and expression-based indexes. Online index creation enables customers to create indexes without impacting application availability. We’ve also introduced expression-based indexes, which enable customers to create indexes based on general expressions and functions, improving performance for queries using expressions or functions. Finally, our index creation performance is significantly, from 50% to 200%, faster than previous versions of the database.
New Packaging Options
In NuoDB 4.0, we’ve improved how NuoDB is packaged and distributed. Delivery of the database is now separate from all drivers and some client utilities. A new client package provides all supported drivers and client utilities. These new packaging changes make it simpler for us to deliver timely updates to the drivers and client utilities, and easier for you to take those updates as needed and move to the next NuoDB release on your schedule.
Learn More & Try NuoDB 4.0
Join our team for a webinar on August 14 to learn more about the 4.0 release, and bring your questions. Lisa Haswell, our Director of Customer Success, and Joe Leslie, our Senior Project Manager, will be running the event, sharing demos, and answering questions.
This is a significant release for our team, and includes new features and benefits based on the feedback we’re continuously gathering from our customers. I’d love to hear how you’re using the latest version. Here are instructions on how to get started. If you’re already using our Enterprise Edition, check out our Release Notes and look for more information here on the blog.
Ariff is the NuoDB R&D Vice-President.