With the advances in traditional databases as well as the new and varied designs found in NewSQL and NoSQL systems, application designers today have a plethora of choices for information management at their disposal. How should a designer choose? What corner cases drive the design? The form a solution takes follows its function and we can see this clearly by contrasting two very different database solutions by examining their architectures and use cases. Actian has a number of database systems in its portfolio, this presentation will highlight and contrast two of them: Versant Object Database and ParAccel SMPdb (formerly Vectorwise).

The Versant Object Database is very much in the NoSQL camp. By using C++ or Java as the primary interface, Versant has little need for SQL, joins, and other typical SQL concerns. We will examine the object database architecture and some example use cases to highlight the OODB fit for complex operational data. On the other side of the spectrum, we will find ParAccel SMPdb firmly in the NewSQL camp. SMPdb relies heavily on SQL, but its columnar design focuses on performance making it a natural fit for analytical processing and easy integration with BI tools.

Derek Laufenberg

Director of Systems Engineering,
Actian/Versant

Derek Laufenberg is a Director of Systems Engineering with Actian/Versant, where he provides consulting and training for Actian's database customers. He also works with the Actian product research and engineering teams to help define product features and direction. Mr. Laufenberg began his engineering career with GE, first working on military flight control systems, researching alternative aircraft control strategies using simulation and real-time flight testing. Later, he moved to GE Medical where he continued working on real-time software projects such as ultrasound imaging and PACS image management solutions. Previous to Actian, as a senior fellow with Powerware he designed and received patents for a fault tolerant uninterruptible power supply (UPS) architecture.

With over 25 years experience in software development, he has worked on a wide range of software including aircraft flight controls, medical systems, and large scale database applications. Mr. Laufenberg holds BS and MS degrees from MIT.