Actian X

Actian X is a hybrid database that combines what used to be known as Ingres and what was previously VectorWise. It is SMP (symmetric multi-processing) based with parallel processing of the data based on a configurable number of CPUs. Its architecture is illustrated in Figure 1 where the X100 query engine is derived from VectorWise.

As one might expect from a product with its pedigree, the Ingres part of this equation provides ACID guarantees and support for two-phase commit within transactional processing environments. The X100 engine, on the other hand, exploits Intel’s vector instruction set (hence the Vector name) to process more data elements per instruction (SIMD: single instruction, multiple data). It is ANSI SQL 2003 compliant and maintains ACID compliance. Columnar storage exploits compression capabilities to minimise storage requirements.

The “Query Processing” element shown in Figure 1 is aware of where data is held and directs queries, or parts of queries, to the appropriate data store. Synchronisation between the two data stores is either defined through rules using stored procedures, or you can use conventional replication technology if latency is not an issue.

Customer Quotes

“Ingres has a long-established pedigree for supporting mission critical transactional environments, while VectorWise has proven high-performance characteristics in supporting analytics, so we have no question marks over the performance and capabilities of the two acting in combination.”

One notable feature of Actian X is its support for a patented technology known as Positional Delta Trees. The following is an extract from the original academic research paper: “our goal is that read-only queries always see the latest database state yet are not (significantly) slowed down by the update processing. To this end, we propose the Positional Delta Tree (PDT), that is designed to minimize the overhead of on-the-fly merging of differential updates into (index) scans on stale disk-based data.” In other words, this is about improved query performance regardless of whatever updates are being made, while preserving consistency. It is also symptomatic of Actian’s approach, in that it leverages a number of patented technologies to maximise performance. In particular, there has been considerable academic work involved in the development of Vector, which was created initially at CWI, the Dutch National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science. As another example, Actian X (the X100 engine) incorporates patented algorithms for optimising the use of memory.

Fig 02 The Actian X ecosystem

The broader ecosystem in which Actian X operates is illustrated in Figure 2. Not shown is support for Kafka and for PMML (predictive modelling mark-up language) though TensorFlow is not supported. Also not shown in this diagram is the fact that there is a managed cloud service available for storing and managing Active X backups; there are a number of geospatial capabilities, including 3D support for R-Tree indexes; and there are database health monitoring and capabilities. Also included with Actian X is DataConnect for Actian X, which provides a development engine for designing and testing integrations, plus a production engine for deployment purposes.

Ingres has a long-established pedigree for supporting mission critical transactional environments, while VectorWise has proven high-performance characteristics in supporting analytics, so we have no question marks over the performance and capabilities of the two acting in combination. And the integration tools and other functions provided by Actian are attractive. For existing Ingres users wanting to add analytic capabilities to their existing environment, Actian X is an obvious choice.

Non-Ingres users fall into two camps: existing users of other relational database systems and greenfield opportunities. We do not envisage that Actian is targeting the former. For greenfield environments, it is important to bear in mind that Actian X is an SMP-based system that scales up rather than scales out. It is not likely, therefore, to be cost-effective for the very largest hybrid environments where you may have hundreds of terabytes of data to process. Where that is not an issue then Actian X may well be worth consideration. If the company wants to address the extreme end of this market then it will need to extend the use of Vector within Actian X to Vector Cluster.

The Bottom Line

If you are an existing Ingres user then Active X should be a trivial decision to support hybrid analytic and transactional processing within the same environment. It is also a strong contender for mid-sized and smaller deployments, especially where SQL and traditional relational approaches are preferred.