Horizontal scalability and distributed workloads brings enterprise functionality to the database that kickstarted the NoSQL movement.

At ApacheCon Europe 2014, the Apache CouchDB™ project today announced a Developer Preview release of its CouchDB 2.0 document database. The Developer Preview release brings all-new clustering technology to the Open Source NoSQL database, enabling a range of big data capabilities that include being able to store, replicate, sync, and process large amounts of data distributed across individual servers, data centers, and geographical regions in any deployment configuration, including private, hybrid, and multi-cloud.

"The Developer Preview release of CouchDB 2.0 delivers on our goal of bringing Apache CouchDB to the enterprise," said Jan Lehnardt, Vice President of Apache CouchDB. "Flexibility and scalability are becoming increasingly important, and it's crucial that data can be stored wherever, accessed whenever, and processed however. Combined with the success of our unique sync protocol that enables flawless mobile-first and offline work capabilities, clustering promises to propel CouchDB into the core of many business."

Apache CouchDB is the database that kickstarted the NoSQL movement. It has been built from the ground up with high performance and fault-tolerance in mind. Unlike SQL, NoSQL frees developers from having to make any decisions in advance, allowing data to be captured in any form, with structuring, filtering, and querying being done after the fact.

In earlier versions of CouchDB, databases could be replicated across as many individual servers as needed, but each server was limited by vertical scaling. With the clustering introduced in the Developer Preview, databases can now be distributed across many servers, adding horizontal scaling capability to CouchDB. This technology works by borrowing many principles from Amazon's Dynamo paper, and improves the overall performance, durability, and high-availability of large-scale CouchDB deployments.

Also in the Developer Preview
Other additions in the Developer Preview include a faster database compactor, a faster replicator, easier setup, re-organised code for easier contributions, a global changes feed, and improved test coverage. This version of CouchDB also includes a new Web dashboard admin interface called Fauxton, with improved user experience design, rich query editors, and a management interface for replication. (A screenshot of Fauxton is available at https://cloudup.com/cQXYSXhhSLj)

Beyond CouchDB 2.0
Also announced today are plans for upcoming new features, including a declarative ad-hoc querying system that standardises around the de facto MongoDB query syntax. This feature promises to open up CouchDB to a whole new segment of developers familiar with SQL who want to use something that feels familiar and allows for casual use.

Get Involved
The Apache CouchDB community encourages feedback as it works towards the 2.0 General Availability release, which is expected early 2015. Those interested in becoming involved with Apache CouchDB are invited to participate in or contribute to any of the project's three IRC channels, eight mailing lists, or 45 Git repositories.

Governance and Oversight
As with all Apache products, CouchDB software is released under the Apache License v2.0, and is overseen by a self-selected team of active contributors to the project. The Apache CouchDB Project Management Committee (PMC) guides the Project's day-to-day operations, including community development and product releases. 

About Apache CouchDB™
Apache CouchDB is the database that kickstarted the NoSQL movement. It has been built from the ground up with high performance and fault-tolerance in mind. CouchDB enables users to easily store, replicate, sync, and process large amounts of data, distributed across mobile devices, servers, data centers, and geographical regions in any deployment configuration, including private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.

CouchDB entered the Apache Incubator in February 2008 and became an Apache Top-level Project in November of the same year. Visit http://couchdb.apache.org/ for downloads, documentation, and ways to become involved with Apache CouchDB.

© The Apache Software Foundation. "Apache", "CouchDB", "Apache CouchDB", the Apache CouchDB logo, and the Apache feather logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 

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