In-Memory Database

Ignite can be used as a distributed and horizontally scalable in-memory database (IMDB) that supports ACID transactions and can be used with SQL, key-value, compute, machine learning and other data processing APIs.

Ignite durable memory architecture allows to store data and indexes both, in memory and on disk. The disk persistence is optional. When persistence is turned on, Ignite can store more data than can fit in the available memory, and will act as a complete distributed SQL database.

In scenarios when the whole data set and indexes fit in memory, and the persistence is disabled, Ignite will function as an in-memory database supporting SQL, together with all the existing APIs for memory-only use cases.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of Ignite SQL is the support for distributed SQL JOINs, which works in both, collocated and non-collocated fashions. When collocated, the JOINs are executed on the local data available on each node without having to move large data sets across the network. Such collocated approach provides the best scalability and performance in distributed clusters.

You should also check Ignite distributed SQL and data grid features.