[GBASE Event] GBASE Leads the Distributed Database Wave: A Promising Future for China’s Ecosystem

On the afternoon of December 19, 2019, Inspur Group, a global leader in servers, big data, and cloud computing services, together with 51CTO, successfully held a debate in Beijing titled "Core Architecture vs. Innovative Architecture: A Clash of Titans." GBASE, as a long-term partner of Inspur and also a representative of the innovative (distributed) database architecture, was invited to participate. Zhang Shaoyong, General Manager of the Data Intelligence Product Division, delivered a brilliant argument.

This event by Inspur Group primarily explored centralized and distributed database architectures from business application perspectives, including core transaction systems, departmental query systems, and interactive engagement systems. Discussions delved into aspects such as availability, consistency, reliability, as well as technical factors like cost-effectiveness, self-sufficiency and controllability, flexibility or compatibility, and scalability and extensibility. Operational dimensions, such as management complexity and failure recovery capabilities, were also thoroughly debated. 

Zhang Shaoyong, GM of GBASE’s Data Intelligence Product Division and a representative of distributed database architecture, argued:

First, distributed databases support eventual consistency.

Technology serves application scenarios. As internet users and data volumes grow exponentially, distributed databases become essential. For most distributed web systems, strong consistency is not required—hence, trading off strong consistency for high availability is a common direction for distributed database products. Guided by CAP and BASE theories, they aim for basic availability and eventual consistency, ensuring high availability and business continuity for web systems (e.g., 12306, Taobao). 

Second, distributed databases support innovative applications.

While certain core transaction systems remain suitable for centralized databases, other innovative applications are better served by distributed databases. They effectively meet requirements for massive data volumes, complex data types, high availability, AI, elastic scaling, flexible business adjustments, and cost efficiency. Widely adopted by internet companies for such applications, distributed databases are now gaining significant attention and adoption in industries like finance and telecommunications.
 

Distributed databases are being deployed in an increasing number of scenarios, thanks to their unique advantages. GBASE, a representative distributed database provider, formed a comprehensive strategic partnership with Inspur as early as 2014. Together, they have jointly developed core big data technologies and products, continuously innovated, and expanded into areas such as government, national defense, finance, telecommunications, and security. This alliance represents a deep collaboration between leading Chinese server and database vendors, built on shared technical vision and complementary strengths. It creates a big data ecosystem that delivers integrated transaction processing and business intelligence solutions to customers. Looking ahead, there is tremendous potential for further cooperation in realizing the vision of China’s big data ecosystem.