Openness Unites, Ecosystem Thrives: The Commitment and Progress of GBase 8s

The 16th China Database Technology Conference (DTCC 2025) was successfully held in Beijing recently. After the event, Cui Zhiwei, General Manager of the GBase 8s Product Division at General Data Technology, sat down with ITPUB for an in-depth discussion on the evolution of GBase 8s and the hot topics shaping today's database landscape.

Here is Cui Zhiwei's account:

Advancing “Product” and “Ecosystem” in Tandem

At DTCC 2025, many peers and users were asking: After the initial explosion of options in China's domestic database market, what will be the true core of future competition? As the head of the GBase 8s business unit, I firmly believe that as the market matures, the dual pillars of 'product strength' and 'ecosystem strength' become increasingly critical. The development path of GBase 8s is our practical execution of this conviction.

The Market Returns to Rationality: A Coexistence of Diverse Architectures

From a market perspective, the 'consolidation' seen over the past two years is an inevitable step towards industry maturity. On one hand, the number of vendors has decreased and technology roadmaps have become clearer, moving past blind hype. On the other, users have shifted from 'seeking rapid replacement' to 'prudent calculation,' paying closer attention to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and becoming more adept at choosing the right product for their specific business scenarios. The most evident example of this is the relationship between centralized and distributed databases. Between 2021 and 2023, many believed distributed systems would replace centralized ones, but practice has proven that each has its strengths: with over 40 years of development, centralized architectures have irreplaceable advantages in concurrency and transaction processing, while distributed systems are better suited for hyperscale scenarios. Therefore, we believe the future of China's domestic database market is a landscape of 'diversified coexistence,' and GBase 8s is positioned as a 'trustworthy, centralized OLTP transaction database.'

Kernel Innovation Is the Foundation

To support this positioning, kernel innovation is fundamental. We remain focused on technological breakthroughs in centralized architectures. We have now developed a full-stack high-availability cluster solution portfolio, including Shared-Storage Clusters (SSC), primary-standby clusters (intra-city HAC, remote disaster recovery RHAC), and real-time data exchange and sharing (ER). These solutions have been validated by hundreds of implementation projects, with their stability and performance recognized by our customers. We view the shared-storage cluster as the 'ultimate product form' for a centralized database. As computing power increases, transparent online disk expansion through shared storage can support even more business scenarios, and new hardware and software technologies offer vast growth potential. This year, we also released GBase 8s's next-generation storage engine, upgrading the underlying pessimistic lock control to an in-memory Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) technology, further strengthening concurrency processing and making the product's core performance even more competitive.

Domestic Replacement Is a Systematic Project, and Ecosystem Is Key

However, we also understand that a strong product kernel alone is not enough. Replacing a foreign database with a domestic one is never a simple 'point product swap'—it is a systems engineering project, and the ecosystem is the key to unblocking the 'replacement bottlenecks' and achieving 'independent controllability.' It's like constructing a building: the database server is the structure itself, but the drivers, interfaces, framework adaptations, and monitoring and maintenance tools are the essential utilities like water, electricity, and gas. The ecosystem is the systematic engineering that connects all these elements.

For this reason, GBase 8s has a three-pronged strategy for ecosystem development: First, compatibility adaptation. By supporting Oracle and MySQL syntax, among other mainstream databases, we reduce the difficulty of migration, while continuously improving compatibility with upstream and downstream Chinese hardware and software to break down ecosystem barriers. Second, toolchain enhancement. We provide a comprehensive suite of monitoring, maintenance, and data migration and synchronization tools to lower costs across the entire lifecycle, from deployment to operations. Third, building ecosystem independence. We are deeply aware that whether based on open source or purely self-developed, Chinese databases must ultimately forge their own ecosystem path. Therefore, we continuously invest in open source community support, development framework adaptation, and talent cultivation to avoid the risk of relying on a single ecosystem and to truly achieve 'ecosystem autonomy.'

Building a 'Specialized and Refined' OLTP Database

Looking ahead, GBase 8s's strategy is clear: continue to anchor in the centralized OLTP track, solidify our product foundation through kernel innovation, and simultaneously accelerate the process of achieving ecosystem independence. We are not pursuing a grand, all-encompassing platform, but rather a focused, highly-refined one—ensuring that every user who chooses GBase 8s can find an adapted solution within their business scenarios, while using our ecosystem to reduce the entire lifecycle costs of migration, maintenance, and development.

Competition among Chinese databases has long since moved past the stage of a 'single-product performance contest' and entered a new era where 'the ecosystem wins.' Every step GBase 8s takes revolves around the dual-engine drive of 'product strength + ecosystem strength': using kernel innovation to build a solid foundation of trust, and using ecosystem development to clear the path for growth. We believe this is the only way to stand firm in a diversified market and help China's database industry truly move toward the global stage.