Under Soaring Hardware Costs | GBase 8c Delivers End-to-End Cost Optimization

Memory prices up, disk prices up, CPUs not cheap either—hardware costs are skyrocketing, and enterprise IT budgets are tighter than ever. As a high-performance distributed HTAP database, GBase 8c tackles hardware costs head-on with five powerful techniques: columnar storage compression, hot-cold data tiering, precise memory control, Chinese CPU适配, and disk I/O tuning.

Technique 1: Columnar Storage + Compression – Slash Storage Needs in Half

Traditional row-based databases store data loosely with low compression rates. As data grows, you keep adding disks.

GBase 8c supports columnar storage, loading only the columns needed for a query. Combined with LZ4, ZLIB, and other compression algorithms (LZ4 for speed, ZLIB for high compression), it achieves compression ratios of 2x to 20x. With intelligent indexing, it quickly skips large blocks of irrelevant data, dramatically reducing scan volumes.

Cost savings: Storage requirements drop by 50% to 95%. What once required 10 disks may now need just 5 or fewer.

In action: A leading financial institution built a data analytics platform with GBase 8c, handling thousands of complex queries per second, producing BI reports in seconds, and cutting storage costs significantly.

Technique 2: Hot-Cold Tiering – Stop Cold Data Wasting Premium Storage

In most enterprises, 80% of data is "cold"—historical orders, log archives—rarely accessed, yet sitting on expensive SSDs and wasting money.

GBase 8c automatically identifies hot and cold data: hot data stays on SSDs for performance, while cold data is automatically migrated to lower-cost HDDs or object storage. The whole process is hands-off.

Cost savings: Storage costs lowered by 40% to 60%. Cold data no longer occupies premium resources.

In action: A manufacturer separated real-time production monitoring data (hot) from historical production data (cold), ensuring real-time analysis ran without lag while historical storage costs stayed low.

Technique 3: Precise Memory Control – Not a Single Megabyte Wasted

With memory prices high, traditional databases often consume far more than expected, forcing frequent expansions.

GBase 8c accurately controls memory usage through kernel parameters, configured as Physical Memory × 0.665 / (1 + Number of Primary Nodes), prioritizing core operations. Memory utilization can rise from below 50% to over 85%.

Cost savings: Memory procurement costs reduced by 20% to 30%.

In action: When modernizing a city commercial bank's core system, GBase 8c's fine-grained memory management kept transaction services running smoothly in a localized environment without a penny wasted.

Technique 4: Deep Chinese CPU Optimization – Double the Performance on the Same Hardware

As China drives technology self-reliance, traditional databases often underperform on domestic CPUs like Loongson and Kunpeng, forcing enterprises to buy higher-spec processors.

GBase 8c is deeply optimized for Chinese CPUs and uses core binding to pin database threads to specific CPU cores, slashing context-switching and cross-core overhead to unleash multi-core performance.

Cost savings: Throughput gains of 30% to 40% on the same hardware, delaying scale-out needs. For example, a 16-core Chinese CPU (~8,000 yuan per chip) may traditionally require 24 cores (12,000 yuan per chip). With GBase 8c, a single CPU saves 4,000 yuan.

In action: GBase 8c has been deployed in city commercial bank online lending platforms, identity authentication systems, and other scenarios—achieving fully self-controlled technology with even lower hardware costs.

Technique 5: Disk I/O Tuning – Extend Hardware Life and Delay Expansions

Traditional databases generate heavy I/O, wearing out disks quickly and leading to premature replacements and expansions.

GBase 8c optimizes buffer configurations to reduce unnecessary I/O operations and adjusts memory parameters to allocate more memory for sorting and hash operations, avoiding disk spills. This reduces reads/writes on high-speed disks, extends disk life, and can push expansions out by one to two years.

Cost savings: I/O operations cut by 40% to 50%, disk lifespan extended by 30%, and expansion delayed by 1–2 years.

In action: A securities firm in East China used GBase 8c to support stable operations across 4,000 devices, while a competing database had already crashed at just 2,000 devices.

From storage, memory, and CPU to I/O, GBase 8c delivers precise, all-link cost reduction through five powerful techniques. Not just cheaper, but smarter—maximizing the value of every hardware investment.