SQL Anywhere Beats Oracle, IBM DB2 in SPEC Benchmark

Sybase Uses SQL Anywhere, Not ASE, As Database Server In SPECjAppServer2004 Benchmark Of Enterprise Application Server Performance

Sybase has chosen SQL Anywhere, the self-managing database server from subsidiary iAnywhere Solutions, as the database software to use in the SPECjAppServer2004 performance benchmark test results published on the SPEC website (here).

SPEC, or Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation, is a non-profit corporation formed to establish, maintain and endorse a standardized set of relevant benchmarks that can be applied to the newest generation of high-performance computers.

The SPECjAppServer2004 (Java Application Server) test is a multi-tier benchmark for measuring the performance of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology-based application servers. SPECjAppServer2004 is an end-to-end application which exercises all major J2EE technologies implemented by compliant application servers. It also heavily exercises all parts of the underlying infrastructure that make up the application environment, including hardware, JVM software, database software, JDBC drivers, and the system network.

The following list shows several SPECjAppServer2004 tests using comparable hardware configurations. The Sybase result of 652.95 JOPS (jAppServer Operations Per Second) for EA Server and SQL Anywhere is higher (better) than the results for WebLogic/Oracle, Sun/Oracle and WebSphere/DB2:

Tester	Title	JOPS	Server	Database	Details...
HP	BEA WebLogic Server 9.0 on HP-UX rx4640	471.28	4 cores, 4 chips	Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.1.0.4	(more)
HP	BEA WebLogic Server 9.0 on HP-UX rx4640	538.03	4 cores, 4 chips	Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.1.0.4	(more)
HP	BEA WebLogic Server 9.1 on HP-UX rx3600	618.22	4 cores, 2 chips	Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.1.0.4	(more)
HP	BEA WebLogic Server 9.1 on Red Hat Linux rx4640	542.17	4 cores, 4 chips	Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.1.0.4	(more)
IBM	WebSphere 6.1 Application Server on IBM System p5 505Q	618.38	4 cores, 2 chip (SMT on)	IBM DB2 Universal Database v8.2	(more)
Sun	BEA WebLogic Server 9.0 on Sun Fire T2000	615.64	8 cores, 1 chip	Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.1.0.4.0	(more)
Sun	IBM WebSphere Application Server 6.1 with DB2 8.2 on Sun Fire T2000 using Solaris 10	616.22	8 cores, 1 chip	IBM DB2 Universal Database v8.2.4 (64-bit)	(more)
Sun	Sun Java System Application Server 9.0 UR 1 Platform Edition on T2000	521.42	8 cores, 1 chip, 8 cores/chip (4 threads/core)	Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.2.0	(more)
Sybase	Sybase Enterprise Application Server 6.0.2 Advanced Edition	652.95	4 cores, 2 chips	SQLAnywhere 10.0.1 x32	(more)

These results clearly show that SQL Anywhere is well-suited for enterprise database server deployment. This may come as a surprise to those who view SQL Anywhere as Sybase's embedded and workgroup database offering, suitable only for small deployments. It is no surprise, however, to developers familiar with SQL Anywhere's recent history: enormous performance improvements have been made over the past few years in versions 8, 9 and 10 of the product.

For more about the self-management and other features of SQL Anywhere, see this paper presented at the 23rd International Conference on Data Engineering on April 16, 2007 in Istanbul, Turkey: SQL Anywhere: A Holistic Approach to Database Self-management.