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DBMS > Google Cloud Spanner vs. IBM Cloudant vs. Informix vs. Kdb

System Properties Comparison Google Cloud Spanner vs. IBM Cloudant vs. Informix vs. Kdb

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Editorial information provided by DB-Engines
NameGoogle Cloud Spanner  Xexclude from comparisonIBM Cloudant  Xexclude from comparisonInformix  Xexclude from comparisonKdb  Xexclude from comparison
DescriptionA 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.Database as a Service offering based on Apache CouchDBA secure embeddable database from IBM, positioned besides IBM Db2 as a relatively low-cost product optimized for OLTP and Internet of Things dataHigh performance Time Series DBMS
Primary database modelRelational DBMSDocument storeRelational DBMS infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypes compatible with MongoDBTime Series DBMS
Vector DBMS
Secondary database modelsDocument store
Spatial DBMS
Time Series DBMS infowith Informix TimeSeries Extension
Relational DBMS
DB-Engines Ranking infomeasures the popularity of database management systemsranking trend
Trend Chart
Score2.84
Rank#100  Overall
#51  Relational DBMS
Score2.75
Rank#104  Overall
#19  Document stores
Score17.12
Rank#34  Overall
#21  Relational DBMS
Score7.71
Rank#49  Overall
#2  Time Series DBMS
#1  Vector DBMS
Websitecloud.google.com/­spannerwww.ibm.com/­products/­cloudantwww.ibm.com/­products/­informixkx.com
Technical documentationcloud.google.com/­spanner/­docscloud.ibm.com/­docs/­Cloudantinformix.hcldoc.com
www.ibm.com/­support/­knowledgecenter/­SSGU8G/­welcomeIfxServers.html
code.kx.com
DeveloperGoogleIBM, Apache Software Foundation infoIBM acquired Cloudant in February 2014IBM, HCL Technologies infoEffective May 1st, 2017, HCL took on development, technical support, and product management teams, and works jointly with IBM on product strategy, marketing, and sales.Kx Systems, a division of First Derivatives plc
Initial release2017201019842000 infokdb was released 2000, kdb+ in 2003
Current release14.10.FC5, November 20203.6, May 2018
License infoCommercial or Open Sourcecommercialcommercialcommercial infofree developer edition availablecommercial infofree 32-bit version
Cloud-based only infoOnly available as a cloud serviceyesyesnono
DBaaS offerings (sponsored links) infoDatabase as a Service

Providers of DBaaS offerings, please contact us to be listed.
Implementation languageErlangC, C++ and Javaq
Server operating systemshostedhostedAIX
HP-UX
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows
Linux
OS X
Solaris
Windows
Data schemeyesschema-freeyesyes
Typing infopredefined data types such as float or dateyesnoyes infoSince Version 12.10 support for JSON/BSON datatypesyes
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.nonoyes
Secondary indexesyesyesyesyes infotable attribute 'grouped'
SQL infoSupport of SQLyes infoQuery statements complying to ANSI 2011noyesSQL-like query language (q)
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
RESTful HTTP/JSON APIJDBC
JSON API infoMongoDB compatible
MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport)
ODBC
RESTful HTTP API
HTTP API
JDBC
Jupyter
Kafka
ODBC
WebSocket
Supported programming languagesGo
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
Python
C#
Java
JavaScript
Objective-C
PHP
Ruby
.Net
C
C++
Java
JavaScript (Node.js)
PHP
Python
Ruby
C
C#
C++
Go
J
Java
JavaScript
Lua
MatLab
Perl
PHP
Python
R
Scala
Server-side scripts infoStored proceduresnoView functions (Map-Reduce) in JavaScriptyesuser defined functions
Triggersnoyesyesyes infowith views
Partitioning methods infoMethods for storing different data on different nodesShardingShardingShardinghorizontal partitioning
Replication methods infoMethods for redundantly storing data on multiple nodesMulti-source replication with 3 replicas for regional instances.Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication
Multi-source replication
Source-replica replication
Source-replica replication
MapReduce infoOffers an API for user-defined Map/Reduce methodsyes infousing Google Cloud Dataflowyesnono infosimilar paradigm used for internal processing
Consistency concepts infoMethods to ensure consistency in a distributed systemImmediate ConsistencyEventual ConsistencyImmediate ConsistencyImmediate Consistency
Foreign keys infoReferential integrityyes infoby using interleaved tables, this features focuses more on performance improvements than on referential integritynoyesyes
Transaction concepts infoSupport to ensure data integrity after non-atomic manipulations of dataACID infoStrict serializable isolationno infoatomic operations within a document possibleACIDno
Concurrency infoSupport for concurrent manipulation of datayesyes infoOptimistic lockingyesyes
Durability infoSupport for making data persistentyesyesyesyes
In-memory capabilities infoIs there an option to define some or all structures to be held in-memory only.nonoyesyes
User concepts infoAccess controlAccess rights for users, groups and roles based on Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)Access rights for users can be defined per databaseUsers with fine-grained authentication, authorization, and auditing controlsrights management via user accounts
More information provided by the system vendor
Google Cloud SpannerIBM CloudantInformixKdb
Specific characteristicsIntegrated columnar database & programming system for streaming, real time and historical...
» more
Competitive advantagesprovides seamless scalability; runs on industry standard server platforms; is top-ranked...
» more
Typical application scenariostick database streaming sensor data massive intelligence applications oil and gas...
» more
Key customersGoldman Sachs Morgan Stanley Merrill Lynch J.P. Morgan Deutsche Bank IEX Securities...
» more
Market metricskdb+ performance and reliability proven by our customers in critical infrastructure...
» more
Licensing and pricing modelsupon request
» more

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More resources
Google Cloud SpannerIBM CloudantInformixKdb
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