Couchbase has announced the latest version of Couchbase Mobile, the industry’s first embedded NoSQL database. Couchbase Mobile 2.5 enables developers to create mobile applications and manage data with secure embedded local device storage, advanced sync capabilities and Machine Learning (ML) queries.
As today’s global enterprises look more and more at Edge Computing to address sensitivities around bandwidth, cost and latency, they are recognising the intrinsic value of capturing and using Edge data in their business-critical applications. Couchbase Mobile 2.5 introduces new functionality for enterprises capitalising on business-critical information at the edge with:
1. Predictive Queries for applications using ML2
2. Delta Synchronization for bandwidth constrained environments
3. Enhanced supportability
Predictive Query
The new Predictive Query API allows mobile applications to use trained ML models to run predictive queries locally on mobile devices against stored data. The predictions in the database can be correlated with predictions made in real time from mobile cameras and other local context sources.
ML in the database on the edge offers several benefits, including fast correlation of real-time predictions with application data, decreased operational cost of ML infrastructure, increased privacy and online/offline support that all ultimately support a better customer and employee experience.
In retail, predictive queries enable employees and customers to easily access detailed inventory and product information using their phone’s camera. For example, when a customer asks an employee, ‘What shirts do you have that match these pants I’m wearing?’ Using a mobile app that uses Predictive Query, the employee can point their phone camera at the pants, the query can correlate the image of the pants with the product catalogue items stored on their phone and the employee can answer that question like an expert – anytime, anywhere, online and offline.
Delta Synchronisation
With delta sync, enterprises can realise bandwidth savings when synchronising data between the mobile device and enterprise servers as well as with peer-to-peer sync between mobile devices. This feature only syncs the individual parts of the document that have changed, resulting in significant reduction in network usage and faster sync time. For example, the transfer size of a 50 byte change to a 2000 byte product catalogue document using delta sync would achieve ≥97% compression, where transfer using Gzip would typically achieve ≤70% compression.
Enhanced supportability
The enhanced supportability of Couchbase Mobile 2.5 introduces enhanced logging support as well as advanced stats reporting. Troubleshooting issues in mobile apps deployed in production is challenging and these latest enhancements alleviate these challenges with continuous logging support, where more detailed logs can be captured any time a problem occurs. Additionally, the enhanced synchronisation statistics makes it easier to monitor and control costs of managing such deployments.
1 Forrester, Edge Computing Will Radically Alter Your Infrastructure Strategy, pg 3. December 5, 2018
2 Delta synchronisation and enhanced supportability are available immediately with Predictive Query in developer preview
“Mobile is a significant trend in data management today, which has the ability to integrate data at the edge with business process data, thus enabling organisations to be able to take immediate action on that data. As an early mover in the mobile database space, Couchbase continues to iterate and innovate on its mobile database technology, ensuring that its customers are well-positioned to take advantage of this trend,” said James Curtis, Senior Analyst, Data, AI and Analytics at 451 Research.
“As an early adopter of Couchbase Mobile, we’ve been able to convert our vision of providing attendees with a first-class mobile experience into a reality,” said Brent Ryan, Senior Enterprise Architect, Cvent.
“Since we initially launched Couchbase Mobile in 2014, the industry has come a long way in terms of fully understanding the true potential of data at the edge. What may have been seen as something nice to have back then has become a must-have today in order to provide rich interaction with customers at the point of engagement. It’s always an exciting time to release new versions of our products, but it’s especially exciting today because the market is finally catching up,” said Ravi Mayuram, Senior Vice President of Engineering and CTO, Couchbase.
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