Couchbase unveils Capella Columnar & free tier on AWS

Couchbase has announced the launch of Capella Columnar on Amazon Web Services (AWS), aiming to streamline the development of adaptive applications by integrating real-time data analysis alongside operational workloads within a single database platform.

This new capability is designed to help businesses manage and glean insights from JSON data used in their operational applications.

In parallel, Couchbase has made Couchbase Mobile with vector search generally available. This feature allows customers to integrate similarity and hybrid search capabilities in their mobile and edge applications. With these dual capabilities in one cloud database platform, Couchbase aims to reduce operational costs and simplify processes for developers.

Additionally, Couchbase has introduced Capella Free Tier, which provides a free developer environment. This initiative is intended to allow developers to explore and evaluate Couchbase's products and test new features without time constraints. According to the company, this will enable continuous innovation and ease the learning curve for deploying applications on Capella.

Matt McDonough, Senior Vice President of Product and Partners at Couchbase, said, "We're committed to empowering organizations to build truly adaptive applications that can respond to real-world scenarios in real time. With the launch of Capella Columnar, we're solving long-standing challenges in JSON data analytics, enabling businesses to seamlessly integrate insights into their operational applications. Our vector search capabilities in Couchbase Mobile extend this adaptivity to edge and IoT devices, opening up new possibilities for hyper-personalised and context-aware applications."

Capella Columnar aims to resolve challenges associated with parsing, transforming, and storing JSON data by converting it into an analysis-ready columnar format. The new system supports real-time data ingestion from multiple sources, not just Couchbase, but also third-party systems such as Confluent Cloud, which is built by the creators of Apache Kafka. The tool also leverages Capella iQ, an AI-powered coding assistant that helps developers write SQL++ code, thus enabling quicker data analysis.

McDonough further elaborated, "This write-back problem has remained unaddressed by analytic systems for decades because it was too difficult to anticipate what a developer would do with it. Capella Columnar implements the solution, and the needs of AI-powered applications provide the motive."

IDC's Research Vice President, Carl Olofson, stated, "Couchbase already provides a highly flexible data management capability by blending its base JSON document model with the ability to manage the data in a networked way. Now they have added blended analytic-transaction processing support that leverages the performance advantage of columnar data management together with vector search in support of applications demanding intelligent data access at the speed of business. These are capabilities that the market has been looking for but are hard to find contained in a single product."

By offering vector search from cloud to edge, Couchbase continues to enable offline-first edge AI applications. Using vector search on-device with Couchbase Lite, developers can create fast, secure, and reliable semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) applications that function even without an internet connection. McDonough highlighted, "By enabling on-device vector search, we're not just speeding up applications and eliminating downtime due to internet outages; we're opening up new possibilities for secure AI development. Our solution combines the cloud's scalability to handle massive AI datasets with edge capabilities for immediate, on-device processing."

To further assist developers, Couchbase's Capella Free Tier offers an opportunity to learn, build, and evaluate new features without any time limitations. Kate Holterhoff, Senior Analyst at RedMonk, remarked, "Developers want to kick the tires on any software they plan to use before committing, particularly when it comes to database solutions. By offering a free tier to Capella, Couchbase acknowledges the tinkering spirit that motivates these important builders and creators."

In summary, Couchbase's new product offerings and developer tools aim to address the demands for real-time data processing and adaptive application development. The organisation is moving forward to provide seamless integration of data analytics within operational applications, along with the flexibility and scalability needed for modern database management.