Couchbase is excited to announce the availability of Couchbase Analytics Developer Preview 3 (DP3).

Major Features:

  • Rich query language: Couchbase Analytics supports SQL++, a next-generation declarative query language that has much in common with SQL. However, SQL++ includes extensions appropriate for the nested, schema-optional or even schema-less world of modern NoSQL systems.
  • Common data model: Rather than requiring you to reform your data into a relational model for Analytics, Couchbase Analytics natively supports the same rich, flexible-schema document data model used in Couchbase Server.
  • Workload isolation: Queries in Couchbase Analytics run on dedicated nodes that process your complex resource intensive queries, thereby avoiding impact to the query latencies and throughput of your operational workloads.
  • High data freshness: Couchbase Analytics uses DCP, the same fast memory-to-memory protocol that Couchbase Server nodes use to synchronize data among themselves, so Analytics queries run on data that is synchronized in near real-time without the overheads of data migration or transformation.

Highlights in Developer Preview 3

The focus of Developer Preview 3 is unified administration: Analytics now lives in the overall Couchbase architecture as “just another service” in its world of managed Multi-Dimensional Services, and the Couchbase Console reflects that. Functionally, DP3 also includes support for secondary indexes. To summarize briefly, DP3 includes:

  • Integrated cluster management: System management for Analytics is now part of the server’s framework, including support for cluster resizing as well as initial support for rebalancing.
  • Integrated user experience: The Couchbase Console includes an Analytics Workbench that provides the same essential look and feel as the familiar Query Workbench for N1QL.
  • Secondary indexes: For running large Analytical queries, the data-parallel algorithms employed by Analytics provide high performance. To accelerate smaller- to medium-sized queries, Analytics now offers you the opportunity to create secondary indexes that it can exploit (in parallel, of course).
  • Multiple data source options: DP3 gives you the option to shadow data either from buckets in the Couchbase cluster in which the Analytics service resides or from buckets residing in a different (remote) Couchbase cluster.

With Octoberfest in full swing, one of the clear use cases for DP3 is an all-important activity: Beer Analytics :). The screen shot below will give you a preview of the new/integrated nature of DP3 by showing Analytics when it has just been readied to work on this use case:

The next screen shot shows how work in progress on this use case might look with the new Query Workbench. Here a Beer Analyst is using SQL++ to explore important beer characteristics by city, perhaps in order to plan their next weekend getaway:

There you have it. Please go ahead and give DP3 a try by downloading the binary and starting with its tutorial – which, coincidentally, is based on – you guessed it – Beer Analytics!

 

 

Author

Posted by Sachin Smotra, Director Product Management, Couchbase

Sachin Smotra’s career spans more than 15 years building software products across various domains including Java Enterprise software, DRM Solutions for mobile games and web conferencing. As Director Product Management at Couchbase, he is a hands-on product leader responsible for Couchbase Mobile, IOT and Analytics product lines including evangelizing the product strategy and vision with customers, partners, developers and analysts. Before joining Couchbase, Sachin was a Senior Manager, Product Management, at Cisco WebEx where he led the product team responsible for transforming the end to end Customer Experience across the WebEx product lifecycle - consideration, purchase, usage and renewals. Prior to his time at Cisco, Sachin worked at different startups in a multitude of roles across engineering, architecture, product management and alliances.

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