UNICOM® Global releases new version of solidDB® in-memory database with enhanced support for Internet of Things

High availability data repository supports critical mobile and distributed applications

MISSION HILLS, CA – June 1, 2017 – UNICOM Systems, Inc. (“UNICOM”) has released solidDB v. 101, the latest version of the powerful, portable in-memory relational database the company acquired from IBM in 2014. solidDB v. 101 includes new features that provide enhanced support for Internet of Things (IoT) applications including a fast, reliable, unintrusive way of replicating data between multiple IoT appliances. New support for geohashing allows IoT and mobile applications to process geo location data faster.

solidDB’s new advanced approach to replicating data between multiple database nodes enhances horizontal scalability and allows for faster data collection by multiple IoT appliances.

“solidDB’s reliability and lightweight design make it ideal for running on portable devices, which require a database with a minimal overhead that can just look after itself, without administrator involvement. Version 101 enhances these core strengths. Data can be gathered and replicated across multiple geographically distributed IoT appliances which run the solidDB database while maintaining high availability and minimizing latency – a must for any IoT applications,” explained Jarmo Ruuth, the Chief Architect of solidDB.

The new replication capability (called CREP) allows for a multi-node, asynchronously replicating system of multiple databases that can be configured to be bi-directional, with full conflict resolution. The system uses log-based replication to ensure that it does not consume excessive CPU or network resources, while replicating all rows written to a single solidDB instance to all replication targets. This allows for replication to happen in the background without impacting normal database performance. Based on the principle of ‘maintenance free operation’, CREP avoids error situations and eliminates the need for administrator intervention. This architectural approach enables multiple replication topologies for disaster recovery, multiple replica databases and many other use cases.

The new Geohash function provides the capability to calculate a one-dimensional hash value from a multidimensional set of coordinates. The benefit of creating an index based on the geohash value provides more selective queries based on that index, rather than on a coordinate-based index with multiple dimensions. This increases efficiency and enables mobile or IoT applications to process location information faster, as Jarmo Ruuth explains:

“Using geohashing allows applications to quickly pinpoint the location of mobile phones or other devices. This is useful for organizations that want to target specific marketing offers or promotions to mobile users while they are at a particular location, for example. It could also be used by a mobile network operator to send emergency notifications to users within a specific geographical area, perhaps to warn them in the event of a terror threat. The ability to react immediately is essential when you are sending thousands or even millions of time-critical messages.”

A new REST API for solidDB v.101 opens up a new world of capabilities for storing and retrieving data, especially for IoT solutions. The API enables access to the solidDB SQL interface from any language that supports the HTTP (and HTTPS) protocol. This extends the access from current ODBC and JDBC interfaces to virtually any modern programming language where HTTP connections are widely used.

For enhanced security, a new certificate-based authentication feature has also been added. The client credentials are stored in an encrypted file, which can also contain other information, such as client IP-address and client executable, to limit user access; this new feature can be used with all communication protocols.

The new solidDB dashboard now provides a simple, at-a-glance view for monitoring server performance, including example monitoring views. There is also the option for users to add their own new sets of performance monitoring (pmon) data collections.

“As with every release, the objective is to include enhancements that our customers expect, with real effects on performance, usability and overall product quality. This release is the second solidDB version under UNICOM stewardship and we are proud to implement new features that have been in the plans for years,” said Jarmo Ruuth.

UNICOM sees solidDB as a building block for Internet of Things UNICOM’s evolution of solidDB is integral to mission-critical systems that require security, availability and most importantly performance, delivering low latencies combined with extremely high transactional throughput. solidDB is designed to be an integral part of any IoT solution.

UNICOM Global is a development-centered organization founded in Los Angeles in 1981 by Corry Hong, an Assembler programmer and architect who built the successful AUTOMON® product, based on IBM CICS® technology. UNICOM Global is a strategic partner of IBM, with whom it has transacted over 13 enterprise software transactions, including UNICOM Intelligence (the market survey and analysis suite formerly known as SPSS Data Collection), UNICOM Finance (formerly Cognos® Planning), PurifyPlus™ (for Application run-time analysis), solidDB® (featuring one of the fastest in-memory databases in the world), and UNICOM Banking Transformation Toolkit (formerly an IBM WebSphere® product supporting rapid multi-channel application development for the banking industry).