| --- |
| title: About Apache AsterixDB |
| --- |
| |
| Apache AsterixDB™ is a highly scalable data management system that can store, index, and manage semi-structured |
| data, e.g., much like MongoDB, but it also supports a full-power query language with the expressiveness of SQL (and |
| more). |
| Unlike analytics engines like Apache Hive or Apache Spark, it stores and manages data, so AsterixDB can exploit its |
| knowledge of data partitioning and the availability of indexes to avoid always scanning data set(s) to process queries. |
| Somewhat surprisingly, there is no open source parallel database system (relational or otherwise) available to |
| developers today -- AsterixDB aims to fill this need. |
| |
| ### Core features |
| |
| * A NoSQL style data model (ADM) based on extending JSON with object |
| database concepts. |
| * An expressive and declarative query language (AQL) for querying |
| semi-structured data. |
| * A runtime query execution engine, Apache Hyracks, for partitioned-parallel |
| execution of query plans. |
| * Partitioned LSM-based data storage and indexing for efficient |
| ingestion of newly arriving data. |
| * Support for querying and indexing external data (e.g., in HDFS) as |
| well as data stored within AsterixDB. |
| * A rich set of primitive data types, including support for spatial, |
| temporal, and textual data. |
| * Indexing options that include B+ trees, R trees, and inverted |
| keyword index support. |
| * Basic transactional (concurrency and recovery) capabilities akin to |
| those of a NoSQL store. |
| |
| ### History |
| |
| Prior to being developed at the Apache Software Foundation AsterixDB was co-developed by a team of faculty, staff, and |
| students at UC Irvine and UC Riverside. The project was initiated as a large NSF-sponsored project in 2009, the goal of |
| which was to combine the best ideas from the parallel database world, the then new Apache Hadoop world, and the |
| semi-structured (e.g., XML/JSON) data world in order to create a next-generation BDMS. A first informal open source |
| release was made four years later, in June of 2013, under the Apache Software License 2.0. AsterixDB was accepted into |
| the Apache Incubator in Febuary of 2015 and was established as a TLP in April of 2016. |
| |
| ### More information |
| |
| More information about AsterixDB (and its underlying frameworks Hyracks and Algebricks) can be found on the site of the |
| [ASTERIX project at UC Irvine](http://asterix.ics.uci.edu/) - especially in the |
| [Publications section](http://asterix.ics.uci.edu/publications.html). |
