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Benchmark Shows db4o up to 44x Faster than Hibernate
Open Source Database Eliminates Object-relational Mismatch with Higher Performance
and Less Drain on Resources
SAN MATEO, Calif., March 29, 2005 - db4o, the leading open source object database
for Java and .NET, showed significant performance advantages in newly published
tests using the independent open source benchmark PolePosition. In particular, db4o
outperformed a MySQL solution using Hibernate, a popular object-relational mapper
that "wraps" relational databases to store objects directly, by a factor of 3-44
in various transactional tasks.
"For a long time, people had to trade off between performance and object orientation.
This is no longer true," says Joerg Plewe, co-author and maintainer of the PolePosition
benchmark. "The new generation open source database db4o, which is native to Java
and .NET, outperforms object-relational mappers by orders of magnitude."
Object-relational mappers are becoming increasingly popular tools for overcoming
the inherent incompatibility of object-oriented programming languages like Java
and .NET with relational databases such as Oracle or MySQL. But the new benchmark
results demonstrate that this solution is only viable if resources are abundant
and performance is not critical.
The PolePosition benchmark sheds light on performance claims of database or data
access vendors. Set up by Plewe as an
independent open source project on SourceForge, it features an open platform
to build and run "racing circuits" as a representation of different transactional
tasks, measuring database performance. While most closed-source databases forbid
publishing benchmarks, open source products can be publicly benchmarked and compared.
The invitation stands for other vendors to include their products in the PolePosition
benchmark comparisons or for evaluators to build their own test environment.
Published benchmarks currently include the native object database db4o and relational
databases MySQL, IBM's open source version of Cloudscape (Derby), HSQLDB and others.
In order to compare functionality, relational data access was implemented with Java's
data access JDBC and JBoss' object-relational mapper Hibernate. A number of "circuits"
represent transactional tasks, from reading bulk flat objects to writing complex
object trees or inherited object structures.
Of all databases covered in this benchmark, db4o is proven the fastest to write
objects, especially in trees or over several levels of inheritance, one of the key
methods of object-oriented programming.
In the circuit dubbed "Barcelona," in which objects with 5 levels of inheritance
structure are written to the database, db4o is 3x faster than the No. 2 performer,
HSQLDB/JDBC; 40x faster than IBM's Derby (Cloudscape)/JDBC; and up to 44x faster
than MySQL running with Hibernate.
"Clearly, adding an additional layer like Hibernate to overcome the object-relational
mismatch costs lots of performance," Plewe says. "db4o is as fast as direct SQL
access, but also offers an easier way to store and retrieve objects - without the
need to write SQL strings which are non-native and hence costly to build and maintain
in one's application code."
Stephen O'Grady, Senior Analyst at RedMonk, agrees. "Ask any object oriented developer
about their list of frustrations and you're likely to hear them mention the difficulty
transitioning from object oriented thinking to relational persistence," O'Grady
says. "db4objects aims to eliminate this divide entirely, without the overhead of
an object/relational mapping layer, by providing native object oriented persistence,
thereby allowing developers to store data in the same manner as the application
generating it: as an object."
The "Barcelona circuit" could be an allusion to a real-world implementation of db4o.
INDRA Sistemas, Spain's largest IT contractor, is now using db4o to power the operation
of Spain's high-speed network of bullet trains, with one of the control centers
situated in Barcelona. The company writes 200,000 highly structured objects per
second in its integrated real-time control system. In extensive stress tests, no
other database was able to handle the requisite load of objects to write where performance
and fail-safeness is absolutely critical.
For more information on db4o's performance in the benchmark look at db4o Benchmarks.
About db4objects, Inc
db4objects, Inc (www.db4o.com) provides db4o, the only native object database for
both Java and .NET and is available under open source and commercial licenses. With
more than 100,000 deployments, db4o is used by some of the world's largest companies,
including BMW, Hertz, and Bosch. db4objects is a privately held company based in
San Mateo, California and backed by noted Silicon Valley investors including Mark
Leslie, founding CEO of Veritas.
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