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Objectivity and SGI Demonstrate Extremely Scalable Database Architecture

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 February 2004, 06:00 CST

Benchmark Streams 32 Terabytes of Objects Per Day Using

Objectivity/DB(R), SGI(R) NUMAflex(TM) Shared-Memory System

Architecture and SGI(R) InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS(TM)

¶ Objectivity, Inc., the leading provider of scalable high-performance databases for the management of complex data, and SGI (NYSE:SGI), the world's leader in high-performance computing, visualization and storage, announced that they successfully loaded 32 Terabytes per day of inter-related objects into an Objectivity/DB database hosted on an SGI(R) Origin(R) family server. ¶ Featuring the SGI NUMAflex shared-memory architecture, the Origin server was accessed via an SGI(R) InfiniteStorage SAN with SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS. ¶ While streaming unstructured data to and from disk files is relatively easy, ingesting large amounts of complex data with many relationships between the data objects is expensive to implement using a relational database management system (RDBMS). In a typical Very Large Database (VLDB) based on an RDBMS, the overheads associated with the database structures may triple the size of the raw data. Also, as the number of relationships increases, there is a corresponding increase in the size of JOIN tables and the number of indices over the data. RDBMS implementations tend to slow down as the amount of data ingested starts to exceed a few tens of Terabytes. In fact, according to the TopTen Program survey published December 2003 by the Winter Corporation (www.wintercorp.com), a leading center of expertise in database scalability, there are very few relational databases that handle more than 20 Terabytes of data. The net effect is that RDBMS applications need more storage and more, or faster, processors to handle large amounts of data. Objectivity/DB uses a highly scalable distributed processing and distributed database architecture to handle VLDBs. CXFS makes a distributed filesystem look like a single local filesystem, while delivering the same performance as XFS(R), the industry-leading SGI(R) filesystem that is widely recognized as the most scalable, highest performance filesystem available. SGI Origin family servers are based on the same SGI NUMAflex shared-memory architecture used in the award-winning SGI(R) Altix(TM) 3000 family of servers based on Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processors and the Linux(R) operating system. The SGI NUMAflex architecture incorporates a low-latency, high-bandwidth interconnect that is designed to maintain performance as it scales, allowing efficient access to local and remote memory without the bottlenecks associated with switches, backplanes, and other commodity interconnect technologies. ¶ Objectivity and SGI configured a 32-processor SGI(R) Origin(R) 350 mid-range server and a 100 Terabyte SGI InfiniteStorage SAN with CXFS filesystem infrastructure to ingest 32 Terabytes of data per day while simultaneously servicing a representative set of mixed queries via a 32-processor SGI(R) Origin(R) 3800 server. The storage overheads imposed by Objectivity/DB (for relationships and indices) were less than 100 percent, compared with the 200 percent or more in an equivalent relational database. ¶"This exercise is a follow-on to our VLDB work at the Stanford Linear Accelerator, where the Objectivity/DB database is approaching 900 Terabytes," said Leon Guzenda, chief technology officer for Objectivity, Inc. "The distributed architectures of Objectivity/DB, SGI NUMAflex and CXFS complement each other perfectly to offer an extremely scalable, cost effective VLDB solution."¶"It takes a uniquely powerful fusion of hardware and software architectures to successfully ingest 32 Terabytes of information per day at such a low cost," said Dave Parry, senior vice president and general manager, Server and Platform Group, SGI. "We believe that Objectivity and SGI is a winning combination that will provide our government and scientific customers with significant competitive advantage."

¶ SILICON GRAPHICS / The Source of Innovation and Discovery(TM)

¶ SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's leader in high-performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate or enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at www.sgi.com.

¶ More About Objectivity, Inc.

¶ Objectivity, Inc. is the leading provider of distributed, scalable object databases with unrivaled support for mixed-language development and mixed-hardware environments. Objectivity boosts developer productivity, shortens time-to-market and provides the ideal platform for mission-critical applications requiring continuous performance and adaptability to future technologies. ¶ Objectivity, Inc. is headquartered in Mountain View, California, USA. For more information, contact Objectivity by e-mail at info@objectivity.com, on the World Wide Web at http://www.objectivity.com or by calling 650-254-7100.

¶ Note to editors: Objectivity/DB is a trademark of Objectivity, Inc. Silicon Graphics, SGI, the SGI logo, XFS and Origin are registered trademarks, and Altix, NUMAflex, CFXS and The Source of Innovation and Discovery are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Intel and Itanium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. All other company or product names mentioned herein remain the property of their respective owners.

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