GBase powers China's largest banking big data platform.
It is well known that database systems are among the most complex and difficult-to-develop large-scale software in global IT. A world-class database must endure 3-5 years of rigorous, high-intensity real-world testing. GBase 8a MPP database is the result of exactly this process.
Longest Stable Operation in China
Deployed in the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) headquarters' big data platform since 2014, GBase has withstood what is arguably the highest-intensity, most complex, and most demanding set of analytical workloads in the global banking sector. Over five-plus years, ABC users and GBase witnessed the birth and maturation of a world-class database, which then expanded beyond banking to power mission-critical applications in finance, telecom, government, and other key industries. After an initial stabilization period, GBase has now supported ABC's independently controlled big data platform with zero unplanned downtime for over 1,400 days. The project received the first prize of the People's Bank of China Financial Technology Award, and ABC and GBase have since co-established a joint innovation lab.
Award announcement
Largest Scale in China
Adhering to the principle of "data as the foundation, governance as the safeguard, technology as the pillar, analysis as the key, and applications as the goal," GBase helped ABC achieve data governance excellence and improved data quality. This enabled advanced data mining, laid a solid foundation for embedding data value into business operations, turned data value into productive power, and built an effective closed loop for data utilization—truly shifting from data support to data empowerment.
The current primary database holds over 2.5 PB of raw data, with daily incremental data reaching 3 TB, and the largest table contains 500 billion rows. It runs 15,000+ internal complex jobs involving 100,000+ SQL statements. End-of-day batch processing completes within 8 hours, and dual-active cluster synchronization (T+1) finishes in 3 hours. In total, 33 clusters with 1,156 nodes have been deployed, managing over 20 PB of raw data.
Delivered Value
Massive Data Management: Provides a massively parallel processing platform for complex data, enabling a single view of PB-scale business data and delivering timely, efficient analytical results.
Regulatory Compliance: Unified data management and governance meet regulatory reporting requirements, ensuring data accuracy, timeliness, and completeness.
Data-Driven Business Guidance: The data warehouse manages data effectively throughout its lifecycle, supports access to comprehensive business data, and satisfies analytical demands in marketing, internal management, and regulatory oversight.
Shifting the Bank's Data Mindset: Evolving data technology and analytical theory require banks to move from sample-based to full-data analysis, from absolute accuracy to efficiency, and from causal to correlational analysis. The data warehouse provides concrete support for this transformation, turning theory into reality.
Innovative Big Data Platform Architecture: Combining MPP database technology with Hadoop in a hybrid architecture represents a financial-industry innovation that earned the first prize of the People's Bank of China Financial Technology Award. ABC's big data platform now runs on 1,156 servers, with the MPP component managing 20 PB of structured data—the largest data warehouse and big data platform in China's financial sector.
ABC users summarize the platform's value with seven "comprehensive" strengths:
Comprehensively self-controlled big data solution
Fully integrated hybrid architecture
Comprehensive data coverage
All-round service modes
Comprehensive intelligent analysis
Universal application support
End-to-end governance system