Frost & Sullivan, in conjunction with LeadLeo Research Institute, released the '2023 China Financial-grade Distributed Database Market Report'. The research topic of this market report is the financial-grade distributed database market. It focuses on product capabilities such as high availability, Ops migration tools, observability, as well as vendor capabilities including implementation cases, product documentation, and ecosystem construction. The research period is from the second half of 2022 to the first half of 2023.
This research project will focus on sorting out information about the market trends, cutting-edge technologies, enterprise needs, and competitive situations of distributed databases in various financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies, and securities firms. It will also make speculations or predictions about the future development prospects of the market.
The analysis conclusions on the comprehensive competitiveness of financial-grade distributed database products and services by competing entities in this report are only applicable to the current development of the financial-grade distributed database market. Frost & Sullivan will continue to monitor the financial-grade database market and keep abreast of competitive trends.
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The competitive landscape of financial-grade distributed databases has gradually become clear, entering a stage of high-quality competition.
Due to social importance and regulatory requirements, the financial industry has stringent demands on database performance and reliability. At the same time, enterprises/organizations themselves bear a heavy burden of legacy systems, making it difficult to migrate and replace databases from foreign vendors. Financial-grade distributed databases can be regarded as one of the 'precious stones' for the capabilities of Chinese database vendors.
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From 2018 to 2020, the demand for self-control and autonomy increased significantly. Financial institutions began to strengthen the planning and layout of financial-grade distributed databases, and peripheral systems started to be put into use for verification. -
In 2021-2022, after verification through cooperation, leading domestic database vendors were recognized, and financial-grade distributed databases began to migrate towards core systems. -
In 2023, cases where core systems have been put into production have accumulated, and the market's focus on financial-grade distributed databases has gradually shifted from 'usable' to 'practical'.
Therefore, the stability, operational complexity, and service experience that database vendors can provide to users are emphasized at this stage. At the same time, the database industry needs to practice long-termism, and database vendors must continuously fine-tune with users over time and in different scenarios to achieve success.
The current development of the financial-grade distributed database industry places more refined demands on database vendors' capabilities. Vendors who have undergone in-depth cooperation to refine product performance and improve scenario demand adaptation capabilities have formed an unbreakable competitive barrier. The market competition pattern for financial-grade distributed databases is becoming increasingly clear, and the industry has begun to enter a stage of high-quality competition.
Based on their understanding of the product capabilities and vendor strengths that a high-quality financial-grade distributed database should possess, Frost & Sullivan and LeadLeo Research Institute have strengthened their focus on the following dimensions in this year's database vendor competition evaluation system:
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Performance and Ops Optimization:Demonstrate the technical strength of the database to meet scenario needs and enhance user experience, as well as the completeness of supporting tools. Performance optimization covers multiple aspects of technology and functions, including providing strong consistency and near-real-time data synchronization to improve system stability, reduce latency, and performance loss; while Ops optimization focuses on reducing the observability capability and user-friendliness level of distributed complexity, as well as intelligent technology reserves. -
Security capabilities:Demonstrate the database's high availability capability under fault and disaster scenarios, as well as data security-related features, such as completeness; -
Service Capability:Demonstrate the ability to handle user emergencies and non-emergencies, as well as ensure comprehensive support required for the correct and smooth use of database products. This includes the completeness of service system construction concepts and product documentation design; -
Case practice accumulation:The breadth and depth of benchmark case accumulation reflect the comprehensive database capabilities in practical applications. Breadth involves the number of core/non-core business systems covered by financial institutions of different scales and types; depth includes case implementation duration, cooperation models, product iteration, and achieved results.
In the current market demand and competitive environment, the capabilities in the above four dimensions are the core foundation for database vendors to engage in high-quality competition in the field of financial-grade distributed databases.
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To realize the value of financial-grade distributed databases, users need to fully consider the core competitive elements that vendors can offer and formulate a comprehensive plan based on this.
Theoretically, financial-grade distributed databases, which are compatible with domestic hardware and can be deployed across multiple machines, can help advance the development of information innovation projects by overcoming the limitations of centralized databases in terms of scalability and hardware upgrade costs. By distributing data and backups across multiple nodes, they meet the needs of high availability and disaster recovery construction, thereby achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
However, in actual operation, to achieve the goal of cost reduction and efficiency improvement, it is not only necessary to realize the theoretical value of distributed databases but also to face a series of engineering problems such as system complexity management, application architecture transformation, challenges in maintaining data consistency, difficulties in data migration and integration, and high capabilities required for technical personnel. At the same time, under pressure from external regulation, internal accountability, and social responsibility, ensuring business continuity is the top priority for financial institutions. Therefore, the core market demand lies in how to bridge the gap from 'ideal' to 'reality'.
The implementation of a database requires three major stages: selection and evaluation (early phase), deployment and configuration (mid phase), and operation, maintenance, and iteration (late phase). Ensuring that business is not significantly affected after users switch to a different database product is key to the recognition of distributed databases. This is mainly reflected in the deployment and configuration stage, hence this stage has a high value proportion in the implementation process (the embodiment of theoretical value). To truly achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement, users need to make meticulous plans at each stage, combining their capabilities with the core competitive elements of database vendors, thereby controlling the total long-term investment cost and improving work efficiency, achieving comprehensive cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
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Numerous benchmark cases have been implemented, providing users with a strong reference and enhancing market confidence in financial-grade distributed databases. This has further driven development momentum within the industry.
The promotion of XinChuang technology follows a cautious development strategy of 'pilot first, then full implementation; from peripheral systems to core ones', controlling the scope of impact through small-scale trials and deployment in non-core systems. At the same time, this also accumulates experience and data for full-scale promotion. Against this backdrop, financial-grade distributed databases show an overall market trend of 'banks leading, followed by non-bank sectors'. There are mainly three reasons behind this:
According to incomplete statistics, there are a total of 1,731 banks in China, with 219 in the insurance sector and 140 in the securities sector, indicating a significant disparity in scale. Under the 'pilot first, then full implementation' technology-driven approach, the scope for non-bank institutions to exchange and refer to each other is too limited, affecting confidence and willingness to invest in distributed databases. In contrast, several leading banks in the banking industry have a foundation in human resources and capital investment, enabling them to better disseminate experiences within the industry;
2. There is a significant difference in the volume scale between head-end and smaller securities and insurance businesses. In scenarios where the data volume is not large and there are no ultra-high traffic peaks, domestic centralized databases or open-source databases can meet most scenarios. Bank data volumes are generally large and there is a strong demand;
3. The logic coupling of securities and insurance businesses is high, and the transformation required to use distributed databases is relatively complex. The execution of the securities trading system needs to integrate functions such as risk control, account information, stock information, real-time stock prices, order generation, etc.; the insurance customer service system can include features such as car insurance reports, life insurance policy inquiries, life insurance surrender acceptances, policy subscriptions, non-car accident reports, road rescue, etc. However, this complexity also represents a high concurrency level in the business, which distributed databases can better meet.
With the implementation of benchmark cases for core systems in multiple financial industries, the number of financial institutions adopting distributed databases to their own core systems has significantly increased. Users' trust and recognition of distributed databases are gradually rising, providing strong impetus for market development.
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The high-quality development of the database industry requires the support of a healthy and sustainable ecosystem.
In the face of current international database vendors' products and open-source technologies, domestic databases are often labeled as outdated or plagiarized. However, the reasons behind this are not only due to the insufficient investment in technology and resources by some vendors, but also because the market has not established a correct cognitive direction. That is, the breadth and depth of knowledge sharing related to standardization and products still need to be improved. At the same time, the ability of powerful vendors to meet market demand is also continuously accumulating.
To establish a sustainable development ecosystem, governments, regulatory bodies, industry standard associations, and standardization organizations need to form a '3C standard' database that screens manufacturers and regulates the market, thereby promoting high-quality development. The ecosystem as a whole needs to increase the layout of 'industry-university-research', build mechanisms for experience exchange and knowledge sharing among all members within the ecosystem, and promote continuous technological innovation and market awareness improvement. In addition, database manufacturers should always adhere to the concept of 'product-centric', avoiding excessive focus on profit effects, falling into the 'peeping glass' effect, pursuing short-term interests only, while neglecting the key points for achieving long-term sustainable development. Through these measures, the database industry will be able to achieve sustainable development, and negative ratings will naturally dissipate.
Based on the continuous tracking by Frost & Sullivan and LeadLeo research institutes, it can be observed that database vendors who have been adhering to a 'product-centric' approach for many years have always maintained an active and proactive stance towards developing ecosystems. Specific measures include organizing database-related conferences to facilitate multi-party sharing and exchanges, collaborating with universities to cultivate database talent, assisting in writing application white papers and industry standard specifications, and actively contributing to ecosystem construction. These active participants include not only industry leaders but also other growing database vendors. With their rich technical accumulation and understanding of scenarios, these vendors play a key role in promoting ecosystem construction and are effectively driving the entire industry towards a more positive and healthy direction.
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The Chinese financial-grade distributed database market is in a stage of high growth with mature implementation. Competitors will be divided into tiers based on their performance in terms of innovation and growth capabilities.
This report measures the competitive strength of outstanding manufacturers in the industry through two main dimensions: market growth index and innovation index.
The growth index measures the competitiveness of competing entities in the financial-grade distributed database growth dimension. The higher the position, the stronger the market growth capabilities and levels of financial-grade distributed databases in terms of performance and compatibility, security assurance, service support, ecosystem construction, and commercial implementation maturity;
The innovation index measures the competitiveness of competing entities in the financial-grade distributed database innovation dimension. The further to the right it is positioned, the stronger the product architecture design and functionality, intelligence, cloud computing capabilities, and level of financial-grade distributed databases.
Frost & Sullivan, in collaboration with LeadLeo, conducts a multi-factor hierarchical assessment of the competitiveness of the Chinese financial-grade distributed database market based on two major evaluation dimensions: growth index and innovation index. This assessment covers eight major indicators, including performance and compatibility, security assurance, service support, ecosystem construction, commercial implementation maturity, product architecture design and innovative features, intelligence, and cloud computing (primarily private cloud).Based on the comprehensive score of the 'Innovation Index' and 'Growth Index', Huawei Cloud GuassDB, GoldenDB, Tencent Cloud TDSQL, OceanBase, and PingCAP TiDB rank among the leaders in China's financial-grade distributed database market.
Huawei Cloud GaussDB:GaussDB has gained widespread recognition from financial institutions for its high performance, high availability, leading Oracle compatibility, and intelligent operation and maintenance. The company continues to invest in building a database development ecosystem to promote its healthy development. Currently, the value of Huawei Cloud GaussDB's technical and product capabilities is gradually being realized, with a significant increase in the depth and breadth of case coverage. In addition to cases from major state-owned banks, it has been launched for customers in joint-stock companies, Chengdu Agricultural Commercial Bank, insurance companies, and securities firms.
GoldenDB:GoldenDB has been deeply involved in the financial industry, continuously iterating and enhancing product functions, performance, and security. In the latest release of version v7.1, GoldenDB has supplemented and optimized features such as multi-mode SQL engines and HTAP, supporting the efficient progress of core distributed transformation work in financial institutions. Currently, GoldenDB leads the industry in terms of depth and breadth of core business coverage. Its implementation achievements provide rich reference cases for the industry and have a positive impact on its development.
Tencent Cloud TDSQL:Through technical accumulation and practice, TDSQL has significantly improved its technical maturity in terms of high availability and scalability. It continues to refine intelligent operation and maintenance tools such as the Bianque Intelligent Platform and service systems, providing users with an excellent database usage experience that has been widely recognized by them. Currently, TDSQL has been adopted by more than 4,000 customers from vertical industries such as finance and telecommunications, and has completed the replacement of core systems for over 30 financial institutions.
OceanBase:OceanBase has achieved rapid iteration of technical capabilities, and its financial-grade technology maturity has been recognized by users in multiple industries. At the same time, OceanBase focuses on providing a full-process database usage experience for users, not only improving internal database capabilities but also continuously refining the tool system. By offering tools such as migration evaluation and operation management, OceanBase provides users with a good database usage experience. Currently, OceanBase's financial institution users cover many leading financial institutions.
PingCAP TiDB:TiDB's one-stop data service platform provides flexible scalability and real-time analytical capabilities, as well as real-time multi-source data integration capabilities, to meet various analysis and query needs, suitable for daily operational-level analysis. The data architecture built on TiDB HTAP helps financial enterprises efficiently process large amounts of data during digital transformation. TiDB continues to make new progress in the financial field and has been widely adopted by banks, securities, insurance, and other sectors, maintaining a continuous growth momentum.
