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DBMS > FoundationDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. InterSystems IRIS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Postgres-XL

System Properties Comparison FoundationDB vs. Google Cloud Spanner vs. InterSystems IRIS vs. Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs. Postgres-XL

Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameFoundationDB  Xexclude from comparisonGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonInterSystems IRIS  Xexclude from comparisonMicrosoft Azure SQL Database infoformerly SQL Azure  Xexclude from comparisonPostgres-XL  Xexclude from comparison
Created as commercial project in 2013, FoundationDB has been acquired by Apple in March 2015 and was withdrawn from the market. As a consequence, the product was removed from the DB-Engines ranking. In April 2018, Apple open-sourced FoundationDB and it therefore reappears in the ranking.
DescriptionOrdered key-value store. Core features are complimented by layers.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.A containerised multi-model DBMS, interoperability and analytics data platform with wide capabilities for vertical and horizontal scalabilityDatabase as a Service offering with high compatibility to Microsoft SQL ServerBased on PostgreSQL enhanced with MPP and write-scale-out cluster features
Primary database modelDocument store infosupported via specific layer
Key-value store
Relational DBMS infosupported via specific SQL-layer
Relational DBMSDocument store
Key-value store
Object oriented DBMS
Relational DBMS
Relational DBMSRelational DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Graph DBMS
Spatial DBMS
Document store
Spatial DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score1.06
Rank#185  Overall
#31  Document stores
#28  Key-value stores
#85  Relational DBMS
Score2.84
Rank#100  Overall
#51  Relational DBMS
Score3.54
Rank#84  Overall
#14  Document stores
#10  Key-value stores
#1  Object oriented DBMS
#45  Relational DBMS
Score76.78
Rank#16  Overall
#11  Relational DBMS
Score0.53
Rank#254  Overall
#117  Relational DBMS
Websitegithub.com/­apple/­foundationdbcloud.google.com/­spannerwww.intersystems.com/­products/­intersystems-irisazure.microsoft.com/­en-us/­products/­azure-sql/­databasewww.postgres-xl.org
Technical documentationapple.github.io/­foundationdbcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docsdocs.intersystems.com/­irislatest/­csp/­docbook/­DocBook.UI.Page.clsdocs.microsoft.com/­en-us/­azure/­azure-sqlwww.postgres-xl.org/­documentation
DeveloperFoundationDBGoogleInterSystemsMicrosoft
Initial release20132017201820102014 infosince 2012, originally named StormDB
Current release6.2.28, November 20202023.3, June 2023V1210 R1, October 2018
License infoCommercial or Open SourceOpen Source infoApache 2.0commercialcommercialcommercialOpen Source infoMozilla public license
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud servicenoyesnoyesno
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageC++C++C
Server operating systemsLinux
OS X
Windows
hostedAIX
Linux
macOS
Ubuntu
Windows
hostedLinux
macOS
Data schemeschema-free infosome layers support schemasyesdepending on used data modelyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateno infosome layers support typingyesyesyesyes
XML support infoSome form of processing data in XML format, e.g. support for XML data structures, and/or support for XPath, XQuery or XSLT.noyesyesyes infoXML type, but no XML query functionality
Secondary indexesnoyesyesyesyes
SQL infoSupport of SQLsupported in specific SQL layer onlyyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011yesyesyes infodistributed, parallel query execution
APIs and other access methodsgRPC (using protocol buffers) API
JDBC infoAt present, JDBC supports read-only queries. No support for DDL or DML statements.
RESTful HTTP API
JDBC
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
ADO.NET
JDBC
ODBC
ADO.NET
JDBC
native C library
ODBC
streaming API for large objects
Supported programming languages.Net
C
C++
Go
Java
JavaScript infoNode.js
PHP
Python
Ruby
Swift
Go
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
.Net
C#
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
.Net
C
C++
Delphi
Erlang
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Perl
PHP
Python
Tcl
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresin SQL-layer onlynoyesTransact SQLuser defined functions
Triggersnonoyesyesyes
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingShardingShardinghorizontal partitioning
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesyesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.Source-replica replicationyes, with always 3 replicas available
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsnoyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflownonono
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemLinearizable consistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityin SQL-layer onlyyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integrityyesyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACIDACID infoStrict serializable isolationACIDACIDACID infoMVCC
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyesyesyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.noyesno
User concepts infoAccess controlnoAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)yesfine grained access rights according to SQL-standardfine grained access rights according to SQL-standard
More information provided by the system vendor
FoundationDBGoogle Cloud SpannerInterSystems IRISMicrosoft Azure SQL Database infoformerly SQL AzurePostgres-XL
Specific characteristicsInterSystems IRIS is a complete cloud-first data platform which includes a multi-model...
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More resources
FoundationDBGoogle Cloud SpannerInterSystems IRISMicrosoft Azure SQL Database infoformerly SQL AzurePostgres-XL
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