Aerospike SQL is built on Trino, an open-source distributed SQL query engine for big data that lets users query data from multiple data sources, including NoSQL databases, in a single query.
The SQL query language is so widely used by data scientists and analysts that it is often considered the lingua franca of data analysis. Most popular analytics and business applications work with SQL databases and need some kind of connector tool to query NoSQL databases.
NoSQL databases add SQL capabilities to broaden their user base
According to Tony Baer, principal analyst at dbInsights, using SQL analytics to extend products to a wider customer base seems to be a trend among NoSQL database vendors and database service providers. Recently, for example, MongoDB launched an interface that lets users with SQL skills query and visualize data in its cloud database-as-a-service (DBaaS), Atlas NoSQL, Baer noted.
The integration of SQL analytics is expected to add ETL (extract, transform, and load) capabilities to the Aerospike database, said Doug Henschen, principal analyst at Constellation Research.
“This integration challenges major traditional products such as Oracle. The availability of SQL through this integration makes Aerospike more attractive to organizations that might otherwise settle for using more memory and compute in a less performant relational database,” Henschen explained.
Henschen added that Starburst’s large customer base may have played an important role for Aerospike in deciding to partner with the company.
SQL capabilities are key to data mesh architecture
The new SQL capability will let Aerospike play a role in data mesh environments, which involve decentralized governance and management of heterogeneous, distributed data, suggested Aerospike CEO Subbu Iyer. “Today’s modern data mesh architecture must support the growing volume of real-time data arriving at the edge and stored in the core,” Iyer said in a press release announcing the new SQL tool.
The goal of data mesh architecture is to make it possible to manage and analyze data regardless of where it is located: on premises, in a public cloud or multicloud environments, and in SQL or NoSQL databases.
