Couchbase Server 4.5 Now Available 

MOUNTAIN VIEW & SANTA CLARA, Calif, June 22 -- Couchbase, the database for the Digital Economy, today at O’Reilly’s Velocity conference announced the general availability of Couchbase Server 4.5. This significant new release delivers powerful new capabilities that make it far easier for enterprises with deep SQL experience and relational database technology to adopt NoSQL for mission critical applications. Couchbase has enhanced its breakthrough, SQL-based query language N1QL (“nickel”), with new features like graphical tools for visually exploring the data model and building ad hoc queries. Additional enterprise capabilities include advanced security, as well as significantly faster queries and indexing that extend Couchbase’s performance leadership in the NoSQL industry.

“As companies evolve to compete in the Digital Economy, they’re introducing modern database technologies to meet new application requirements. Couchbase has built a reputation for delivering unmatched performance required by web, mobile and IoT applications,” said Ravi Mayuram, senior vice president, products and engineering at Couchbase. “With the innovations in Couchbase Server 4.5, we’re extending our long-standing performance leadership to a new class of enterprise applications that require complex query processing, while also making it even easier for enterprises to undergo digital transformation by leveraging existing SQL-based skills and technology investments.”

RDBMS to NoSQL – Smoothing the Transition

The N1QL query language, introduced in Couchbase Server 4.0, empowered developers and admins, for the first time ever, to use their SQL skills to access and query JSON data. Couchbase Server 4.5 builds on N1QL, adding new features that make it even easier for customers to introduce NoSQL into their existing architecture, and give them greater confidence in making the transition:

• Query Workbench – A built-in query editor for writing and executing queries in N1QL and immediately viewing the results. Query Workbench makes it fast and easy to run ad-hoc queries on the fly.
• Auto schema discovery – Allows data modelers to visually explore and understand the shape of their data, and lets admins easily manage data even as it quickly changes. This makes it easy to evolve from the structure of relational to the more flexible JSON format.
• Query monitoring and profiling – Admins can monitor individual queries and the nodes running queries to discover diagnostic and performance details, enabling faster troubleshooting.

“At Amadeus, our booking platforms process nearly 500 billion travel-related data requests per day. We work with Couchbase to help support these services and keep the travel industry moving,” said Michael Hirschberg, senior system engineer big data, Amadeus IT Group. “Couchbase Server 4.5 delivers impressive new capabilities, from enhanced security features to significantly faster data access and queries, which allows us to expand and accelerate our use of Couchbase to support more applications and use cases.”

Couchbase Extends Performance Lead

Couchbase Server 4.5 includes numerous improvements that extend its performance lead to many new types of use cases that rely on complex queries. For customers, performance advantages translate into significant cost savings (fewer resources required for a given workload) and better end user experiences. Select features driving improved query performance in Couchbase Server 4.5 include:

• Memory-optimized global indexes – Lets developers build global indexes using a highly optimized, in-memory and lock-free data structure. This delivers faster, fresher indexes and high performance queries under very high data modification rates.
• Array indexing – N1QL’s support of array processing within queries has been extended – now it’s possible to create an index of array elements ranging from plain scalar values to complex arrays or JSON objects deeply nested in the array, further improving query performance.
• Flexible JOINs – N1QL has been extended to support new query optimizations that more efficiently handle JOINs, increasing performance of these queries by orders of magnitude.
• Fast partial reads and writes with JSON documents – Allows data in a document to be added, removed or modified within a document – without the application having to read and write the entire document. This results in better network utilization and faster reads and updates for large documents.

Improved Enterprise Grade Security

As more mission critical applications are deployed on Couchbase, security becomes an increasing concern. The new release introduces two big advancements in security:

• Couchbase Server 4.5 uses X.509 certificates to provide strongly trusted on-the-wire encryption for client-server communications, whether within a single cluster or across multiple clusters or data centers. This new capability makes it simple for administrators to manage and rotate certificates without application downtime.
• The new release adds role-based access control (RBAC) for administrators. In addition to the existing encryption and auditing facilities, RBAC provides fine grained control over administrative access and simplifies compliance with governance rules.

Production Certified Support for Containers

Couchbase Server 4.5 also includes production certified support for Docker and Red Hat OpenShift container platforms. Customers can now confidently leverage these platforms to more easily and quickly scale their Couchbase deployments and maximize resource efficiency, while simplifying the full application lifecycle.

Couchbase Server 4.5 is available today for download here. Additionally, Couchbase will be showcasing Couchbase Server 4.5 at O’Reilly Velocity, in booth 810.

About Couchbase

Couchbase delivers the database for the Digital Economy. Developers around the world choose Couchbase for its advantages in data model flexibility, elastic scalability, performance, and 24x365 availability to build enterprise web, mobile, and IoT applications. The Couchbase platform includes Couchbase, Couchbase Lite - the first mobile NoSQL database, and Couchbase Sync Gateway. Couchbase is designed for global deployments, with configurable cross datacenter replication to increase data locality and availability. All Couchbase products are open source projects.

Source: Couchbase