GigaSpaces Technologies has integrated McObject’s Perst open source, object-oriented all-Java embedded database for real-time data management in its massively scaleable distributed application technology.

GigaSpaces embeds Perst in version 5.1 of its software, where Perst provides persistence for applications that are deployed and optimized using GigaSpaces’ highly scalable, self-managing distributed solution.

Perst’s all-Java architecture was a good fit for GigaSpaces. The company’s software products are developed in Java, both for maximum portability across diverse enterprise platforms, and to take advantage of advanced Java capabilities, including JavaSpaces, a simple unified mechanism for dynamic communication, coordination, and sharing of objects between Java technology-based network resources. Perst is specifically integrated within the GigaSpaces In-Memory Data Grid , as an embedded object-oriented database offered as an alternative to a relational database due to its superior performance and minimal resource (CPU cycles and memory) requirements..

“A major advantage of Perst is the efficiency provided by its ability, as an object-oriented database, to store application data as ‘plain old Java objects’ (POJOs), rather than requiring translation of this data to a relational format,” said Guy Nirpaz, vice president for research and development of GigaSpaces.

GigaSpaces implements a unique space-based architecture that incorporates aspects of grid computing and service-oriented architecture and dramatically boosts the scalability and performance of both new and existing applications. GigaSpaces’ software meets the requirements of high performance, low latency and grid-based applications, and adds new possibilities and flexibility by introducing advanced application design patterns. It has been tested extensively in large financial applications with proven linear scalability and extremely high performance.

Perst is McObject’s high-performance object-oriented embedded database for Java and C#, and is tightly integrated with these programming languages. In contrast to object-relational databases, or tools that provide object-relational mapping, Perst stores data directly in Java/C# objects. This eliminates the need for expensive (in performance terms) runtime conversions between representations of the data.

Unlike many other object-oriented databases, Perst requires no dedicated compiler or pre-processor, yet provides a high degree of application transparency. The Perst API is convenient, flexible and easy-to-use. Perst also offers a very small footprint. The engine’s core is just 5,000 lines of code, and the run-time requires between 30K and 300K of RAM. Perst requires no end-user administration, and despite its simplicity, Perst ensures integrity via transactions that adhere to the “ACID” properties (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability) with very fast recovery.

The Perst open source software distribution also includes Perst Lite, a micro-footprint version of Perst targeting embedded systems and intelligent devices developed on the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME). For more information see www.mcobject.com/perst.