DBMS > Databricks vs. FatDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner

System Properties Comparison Databricks vs. FatDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines

Name

FatDB/FatCloud has ceased operations as a company with February 2014. FatDB is discontinued and excluded from the ranking.

Description

The Databricks Lakehouse Platform combines elements of data lakes and data warehouses to provide a unified view onto structured and unstructured data. It is based on Apache Spark.

A .NET NoSQL DBMS that can integrate with and extend SQL Server.

A horizontally scalable, globally consistent, relational database service. It is the externalization of the core Google database that runs the biggest aspects of Google, like Ads and Google Play.

Primary database model

Document store
Relational DBMS

Document store
Key-value store

Relational DBMS

DB-Engines Ranking measures the popularity of database management systems
Trend Chart

Score	102.66
Rank	#12	Overall
	#2	Document stores
	#8	Relational DBMS

Score	2.56
Rank	#97	Overall
	#50	Relational DBMS

Website

www.databricks.com

cloud.google.com/spanner

Technical documentation

docs.databricks.com

cloud.google.com/spanner/docs

Developer

Databricks

FatCloud

Google

Initial release

2013

2012

2017

License

Commercial or Open Source

commercial

Cloud-based only

Only available as a cloud service

yes

DBaaS offerings (sponsored links)

Database as a Service

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Implementation language

Server operating systems

hosted

Windows

hosted

Data scheme

Flexible Schema (defined schema, partial schema, schema free)

schema-free

yes

Typing

predefined data types such as float or date

yes

XML support

Some form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.

yes

Secondary indexes

yes

SQL

Support of SQL

with Databricks SQL

Via inetgration in SQL Server

yes

Query statements complying to ANSI 2011

APIs and other access methods

JDBC
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API

.NET Client API
LINQ
RESTful HTTP API
RPC
Windows WCF Bindings

gRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC

At present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API

Supported programming languages

Python
R
Scala

Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python

Server-side scripts

Stored procedures

user defined functions and aggregates

yes

via applications

Triggers

yes

via applications

Partitioning methods

Methods for storing different data on different nodes

Sharding

Replication methods

Methods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodes

yes

selectable replication factor

Multi-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.

MapReduce

Offers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methods

yes

using Google Cloud Dataflow

Consistency concepts

Methods to ensure consistency in a distributed system

Immediate Consistency

Eventual Consistency
Immediate Consistency

Immediate Consistency

Foreign keys

Referential integrity

yes

by using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrity

Transaction concepts

Support to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of data

ACID

Strict serializable isolation

Concurrency

Support for concurrent manipulation of data

yes

Durability

Support for making data persistent

yes

In-memory capabilities

Is there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.

User concepts

Access control

Can implement custom security layer via applications

Access rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)

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Recent citations in the news

Exclusive | Databricks to Buy Startup Neon for $1 Billion
14 May 2025, WSJ

Databricks Hires Google Cloud, AWS Marketplace Guru
15 May 2025, CRN Magazine

Databricks Agrees to Acquire Neon to Deliver Serverless Postgres for Developers + AI Agents
14 May 2025, PR Newswire

Databricks buys serverless database startup Neon for reported $1B
14 May 2025, SiliconANGLE

Databricks modernizes healthcare data on AWS
13 May 2025, Amazon Web Services

provided by Google News

Google Cloud Introduces HDD Tier for Spanner Database, Cutting Cold Storage Costs by 80%
22 March 2025, infoq.com

New features make Google's Spanner a database for AI
1 August 2024, TechTarget

Google Cloud adds graph processing to Spanner, SQL support to Bigtable
1 August 2024, InfoWorld

Google Cloud adds graph and vector search features to Spanner database
2 August 2024, techzine.eu

Google’s Plan to Make GCP ‘The Best Cloud for Machine Learning’
5 May 2025, SDx Central

provided by Google News

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