As someone noted in a blog, the NDB API is a NoSQL API that was designed 15 years ago. When I wrote my Ph.D thesis (which is the design document that NDB Cluster is based on) I called it Design and Modelling of a Parallel Data Server for Telecom Applications. The important name I used here is Data Server. It was never intended as a pure SQL DBMS. It was always intended for any needs of Data Storage. The requirements on this Data Server was also written up in my thesis for those who care to read it and included HLR's (the telecom database used to keep track of your mobile phone), News-on-Demand, Multimedia Email, Event Data Services (logging of events in the telco and web applications used for charging, billing and understanding the customers) and a genealogy application.
MySQL Cluster have been very successful in the telecom space and chances are very high that a MySQL Cluster solution is used whenever you place a mobile phone call. Also many ISPs use MySQL Cluster to handle DNS lookups, authentication and many other internet services. As an example here the ISP I use every day and through which I post this blog message is using MySQL Cluster for this type of service. So I invoke services of the MySQL Cluster every time I access the web from my home. In addition, we have seen MySQL Cluster adopted into eCommerce, session management, content delivery, user profile management and on-line gaming applications.
MySQL Cluster was from the very start designed to handle many other applications as well in the web space. Today the internet environment contains quite a few different APIs to use for handling web data. MySQL Cluster already now have a plethora of different APIs that can be used to access the basic Data Server. MySQL Cluster can be used with every possible API that can be used to access a MySQL Server. In addition we have the Cluster/J API which is a low-level Java API with similar characteristics to the NDB API. Based on the Cluster/J API we have a standard JPA interface to MySQL Cluster. We even have an LDAP interface which means that the same data can be accessed through LDAP, SQL, Cluster/J, JPA, NDB API and many other interfaces based upon these of which I am sure I don't know every one. Another interesting interface is mod-ndb which makes it possible to query MySQL Cluster using a REST API and get results in JSON.
We are however not satisfied with the set of APIs we have towards MySQL Cluster so we'll be adding even more as we go to make the Data Server capabilities available to you from even more surroundings, these will be including additional APIs commonly used in the web space. Stay tuned for Tomas Ulin's keynote at the UC and Collaborate next week.
Hello Mikael,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this post. It's introduced me to mod_ndb, which solves a few of the problems I've been having lately.
It's also great to hear that Cluster has some extraordinarily exciting things coming down the pipe; it genuinely simplifies a lot of our traditional SQL workload and improvements would allow us to unify other needs in the future.
Thanks again!