Differences between Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition - PolarDB

This topic describes the differences between PolarDB-X Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition.

PolarDB-X integrates centralized and distributed architectures.

Therefore, PolarDB-X combines the scalability of distributed databases and the performance of centralized databases. You can smoothly switch a PolarDB-X instance between the two types of architectures. In a database that integrates centralized and distributed architectures, data nodes independently operate in a centralized manner and are fully compatible with the single-node database model. When an upgrade to a distributed system is required as the business grows, the architecture can be seamlessly transitioned in place into a distributed model. During the upgrade, distributed components are seamlessly integrated with the existing data nodes without the need to migrate data or modify the applications.

PolarDB-X instances are available in two editions: Standard Edition (centralized architecture) and Enterprise Edition (distributed architecture). The following section describes the two editions.

Standard Edition

Standard Edition uses the centralized architecture and can run MySQL in a standalone setup (fully compatible with MySQL). This edition also supports distributed features such as Paxos-based multi-replica architecture and Lizard transaction system. Compared with open-source MySQL, PolarDB-X Standard Edition provides higher availability and a 30% to 40% performance improvement.

The original ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL three-node Enterprise Edition has been rebranded and incorporated into the PolarDB-X Standard Edition, and continues to provide database services based on the X-Paxos algorithm developed by Alibaba Cloud to ensure a zero recovery point objective (RPO).

Enterprise Edition

Enterprise Edition uses the distributed architecture and is highly compatible with the MySQL ecosystem. This edition supports strongly consistent distributed transactions and distributed parallel queries. A cluster of this edition can be scaled from a minimum of 1 node (centralized architecture) to 1,024 nodes (distributed architecture), and can process tens of millions of queries per second (QPS) and petabytes of data.

The integration of centralized and distributed architectures allows you to upgrade your cluster from Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition without the need for business transformation and data migration. You can also implement features such as transparent distribution or hybrid transaction/analytical processing (HTAP) to address business limits.

For more information about how to upgrade a PolarDB-X instance from Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition, see Upgrade an instance from Standard Edition to Enterprise Edition.

Benefits and limits of each edition

Item

Standard Edition (centralized architecture)

Enterprise Edition (distributed architecture)

Benefits

Provides full MySQL compatibility. Prices are reduced by 40%, which improves cost-effectiveness.
Instances that use small specifications provide higher performance than instances that use the distributed architecture. For example, instances whose number of CPU cores is no greater than 32 can be upgraded to instances that use large specifications and the distributed architecture.
Supports finance-grade disaster recovery and three-zone disaster recovery.

Supports distributed linear scalability. A cluster supports up to 1,024 nodes and petabytes of data.
Supports finance-grade disaster recovery, three-zone disaster recovery, and three data centers across two regions architecture.
Supports HTAP and built-in column store replicas to accelerate online analysis.

Limits

The performance of standalone MySQL databases is low when handling concurrent queries of large tables that use B-tree indexes. We recommend you limit the number of rows of a table that uses the B-tree index to 5 million to 50 million rows.
A standalone MySQL instance can be scaled up to contain no more than 90 CPU cores.

Scenarios

You need MySQL databases to support cross-zone disaster recovery that can achieve zero recovery point objective (RPO).
You need MySQL databases to be cost-effective and fully compatible with open-source MySQL, and provide scalability based on business workloads.

You need MySQL databases to support distributed scaling capabilities to handle highly concurrent queries such as order transactions.
You need to optimize O&M operations by replacing database and table sharding provided by open-source MySQL.
You need to improve the performance of handling large tables in MySQL by performing data sharding based on the distributed architecture.
You need to upgrade your MySQL databases to the distributed architecture. You also need your databases to be compatible with open source MySQL.