GBase Drives the Early-Stage Development of Distributed Database Standards for Financial Applications

In August 2019, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) issued the "FinTech Development Plan (2019–2021)," which called for continuously strengthening basic and cutting-edge technology research in distributed databases, establishing standards and specifications for financial applications of distributed databases, clarifying management requirements in terms of technical architecture, security protection, and disaster recovery, and ensuring the reliable application of distributed databases in the financial sector.

As the financial sector transforms and upgrades its distributed architecture, the application of distributed databases in finance has gradually deepened. To standardize the financial application of distributed databases, strengthen their technological support for financial services, and enhance their ability to ensure financial business continuity and information security, the Science and Technology Department of the PBOC proposed and took the lead in drafting a series of standards for financial applications of distributed databases, with participation from relevant industry organizations.

On November 26, 2020, the PBOC issued three financial industry standards: "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Specification — Technical Architecture" (JR/T 0203-2020), "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Specification — Security Technical Requirements" (JR/T 0204-2020), and "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Specification — Disaster Recovery Requirements" (JR/T 0205-2020).

The "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Specification — Technical Architecture" stipulates the architectural requirements for distributed transactional databases in the financial sector, covering technical framework, functional features, and operations management, aiming to ensure high availability of financial services, high data reliability, elastic scalability, high product adaptability, and easy data migration. The "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Specification — Security Technical Requirements" stipulates the security requirements for distributed transactional databases in the financial sector, covering basic support assurance, user management, access control, data security, monitoring and alerting, key management, security administration, and security auditing, aiming to ensure the secure and stable operation of financial services. The "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Specification — Disaster Recovery Requirements" stipulates the disaster recovery requirements for distributed transactional databases in the financial sector, covering disaster recovery capability levels, disaster recovery technical requirements, and disaster recovery management processes, aiming to guide financial institutions in establishing sound disaster recovery mechanisms to ensure business continuity.

The series of financial application standards for distributed databases applies to the development, testing, assessment, and application of distributed transactional databases in the financial sector, laying a solid foundation for the financial application standards system for distributed databases. General Data Technology Co., Ltd. (GBase) participated in the drafting of all three standards.

To enhance the standards compliance of distributed database products, promote the reliable application of distributed databases in finance, and fill the gap in technical testing of distributed databases in the financial industry, the Beijing FinTech Industry Alliance organized relevant organizations to compile the "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Testing Specification" and the "Distributed Database Financial Application Evaluation Model." Currently, the "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Testing Specification" is at the stage of approval as a group standard.

The "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Testing Specification (Draft for Approval)" stipulates the testing items to be satisfied by all parties in the distributed database industry for financial applications, covering technical architecture testing, security technology testing, disaster backup, performance testing, etc., aiming to provide industry-consensus testing guidance for all parties in financial applications. The targets of the testing specification are the distributed database application test objects referred to in the series of financial industry standards "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Specification."

On January 26, 2021, the Beijing FinTech Industry Alliance released the "Distributed Database Financial Application Evaluation Model" group standard for public comment (draft for comments).

The "Distributed Database Financial Application Evaluation Model (Draft for Comments)" proposes an evaluation model for standards compliance testing based on the series of financial industry standards "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Specification" and the "Distributed Database Technology Financial Application Testing Specification (Draft for Approval)," taking into account the financial industry's requirements for distributed database product features. The draft for comments divides the entire evaluation model into six dimensions: basic functions, distributed transaction and storage capabilities, system operations and scalability, security functions, service high availability, and performance, aiming to guide the technical assessment in the evaluation and testing of distributed database products for the financial industry.

In summary, the three financial industry standards set forth the technical requirements for financial application standards for distributed databases, while the two group standards provide important guarantees for the implementation of these standards. It can be said that a standards system for financial applications of distributed databases has taken initial shape.

General Data Technology Co., Ltd. (GBase), a member of the Beijing FinTech Industry Alliance, has long been committed to the development of China's database standards system. The company continues to devote efforts to research in standards related to SQL, distributed systems, big data, and application interfaces, actively investing resources in the drafting of multiple national standards, industry standards, and group standards.