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Imply Polaris brings Apache Druid database to the cloud
Imply's new Polaris cloud database services builds on the open source Druid technology, with integrated data ingestion capabilities and a new multi-stage query engine.
Analytics database vendor Imply Data Inc. today announced the general availability of its new Polaris cloud database as a service based on the open source Apache Druid technology.
Imply, based in Burlingame, Calif., was founded in 2015 by the creators of the Apache Druid open source analytics database project to provide commercial support and services. To date, Imply has enabled users with capabilities for running its database on-premises and in virtual private cloud deployments. With the new Imply Polaris offering, the company is providing a database-as-a-service (DBaaS) platform that is intended to make it easier for an organization to run and operate the analytics database.
Imply Polaris is built on top of the Apache Druid database and is extending it with a new multi-stage query engine intended to help accelerate complex data analytics queries and reports.
"Streaming data has rapidly become the heart of modern analytics workflows, and Druid very often sits at the center of those architectures," said Steve McDowell, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "At the same time, implementing Druid at scale comes isn't always the easiest undertaking. "
Extending Apache Druid with Imply Polaris DBaaS
The Polaris DBaaS is being positioned by Imply as the first effort in the company's Project Shapeshift effort that aims to improve the usability of Druid.
According to McDowell, Polaris allows IT shops to treat Druid as a fully-managed cloud service. He said users benefit because that reduces the need for an IT architect or administrator to go deep into Druid administration and optimization.
"Polaris allows IT practitioners to leverage the power of Druid without having the distraction of having to install, configure, and manage the database on an on-going basis," McDowell said.
David Wang, vice president of product marketing at Imply, explained that among the improvements that Imply Polaris provides is an integrated approach to ingesting data from streaming event data pipelines. Wang said that to enable the integrated streaming, Imply is using the Confluent Cloud service in the background. Confluent is the leading commercial vendor behind the open source Apache Kafka streaming event data technology, and its cloud service provides a managed service for operations.
Multi-stage queries enhance Apache Druid
Imply Polaris is also providing a preview of a new multi-stage query engine for Apache Druid that will enable longer-running data queries and improved reports.
Fangyin Yang, co-founder and CEO of Imply, explained that the company's goal with Polaris is to help unify different ways that data is consumed in the Druid database. Yang said the multi-stage engine can be used to transform and manipulate data for data processing.
He added that long-running queries executed in order to generate reports will be more easily enabled with the multi-stage query engine. The query engine also provides an alerting capability that can help users track a large number of objects.
"We created Druid to help power analytics applications where people are clicking on buttons to get insights from data," Yang said." Polaris is obviously something that is targeting the simplicity of operations."
