Alibaba Cloud uses a variety of cloud database services to develop an aggregate payment solution for Wuhan Lichu Business Service Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Lichu Saobei) with consideration for the following aspects: business scalability, data liquidity, and high availability. This solution can address issues such as insufficient data storage, reduced read and write performance, and lack of big data analysis during business development.

Challenges

Lichu Saobei provides service for 700,000 merchants across more than 400 cities in China. 12 million transactions are made on a daily basis, amounting to an annual amount of CNY 200 billion. Lichu Saobei has successfully provided an aggregate payment solution for hundreds of industries. As its business grows, Lichu Saobei has encountered the following challenges:

  • Storage

    Over the last three months, 2 TB of data has been generated. The storage space of their standalone ApsaraDB RDS instance will soon be depleted.

  • High concurrency

    As the number of merchants and daily transaction volumes grow, the read and write performance of databases decreases significantly.

  • Analysis requirements

    As the amount of data increases, the amount of data queried increases exponentially. A standalone MySQL database is not sufficient to meet the requirements for analysis and queries of large amounts of data.

Solution

Alibaba Cloud developed the following solution for Lichu Saobei through a combination of cloud database services.

Description:

  • PolarDB-X 1.0 is used to increase the storage capacity and handle highly concurrent queries. Its horizontal partition capabilities are ideal for this application. PolarDB-X 1.0 is highly compatible with the MySQL syntax. This helps upgrade the original standalone database structure to the current distributed architecture.
  • PolarDB is used to archive the large volumes of data that is generated. Its compute-storage separated architecture and full compatibility with MySQL ensure that the original business can run with no changes required. For more information, see What is PolarDB?
  • ApsaraDB for Redis is used for in-memory storage of hot data. This provides a highly performant cache that greatly improves read efficiency. Read-only ApsaraDB RDS instances are used for automatic load balancing. For more information, see What is ApsaraDB for Redis?
  • AnalyticDB for MySQL is used to perform immediate queries of large amounts of data. This can meet the requirements for real-time operations and enable fast precision marketing. For more information, see What is AnalyticDB for MySQL?

Benefits

  • Linear scalability

    Supports high query concurrency, storage scaling, and computing resource scaling based on the caching feature of ApsaraDB for Redis and the horizontal or vertical partitioning feature of PolarDB-X 1.0, enabling the system to store 100 TB of data and support 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) and millions of queries per second (QPS). This allows Lichu Saobei to handle up to 10 times the current business volume and tackles challenges of database storage and high concurrency due to rapid business growth, ensuring that every end user can enjoy a smooth payment experience during business development.

  • Data liquidity

    Uses Data Transmission Service (DTS) to synchronize data in real time, allowing user data to flow in real time. The big data processing capabilities of PolarDB and AnalyticDB for MySQL reduce the amount of time required to generate decision reports from minutes to seconds. Most reports are generated within 10 seconds. Complex reports can also be generated within a minute. Data related with business behaviors can be immediately presented in reports to assist with decision-making, creating business value.

  • 24/7 high availability service

    Provides multiple features such as specification upgrade or downgrade, smooth scaling, SQL audit, and read-only instances 24/7. The security and stability can suffice the requirements in the finance industry.