Alibaba Cloud’s cloud-native relational database PolarDB has set a new world record in the TPC-C benchmark, which evaluates the performance of online transaction processing (OLTP) systems. The benchmark was developed by the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC).

According to the TPC-C results, PolarDB achieved 2.055 billion transactions per minute (tpmC), 2.5 times higher than the previous record holder, while reducing the cost per transaction (price/tpmC) by almost 40% to CNY 0.8 (USD 0.11).

PolarDB’s achievement of 2.055 billion tpmC in the TPC-C benchmark is 59 times the peak transaction volume recorded during the Tmall 11.11 Shopping Festival in 2020.

Additionally, during an 8-hour stress test, PolarDB successfully processed 2.2 trillion data operations with 100% data accuracy, and maintained a tpmC fluctuation rate of just 0.16%, an order of magnitude lower than the TPC-C benchmark requirement of 2%.

Dr Feifei Li, President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence’s Database Products Business, said, “This remarkable achievement is a testament to our team’s relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence in database technology. PolarDB’s performance in the TPC-C benchmark showcases its capability to handle the most demanding workloads while emphasizing our commitment to providing cost-effective and scalable solutions.”

The TPC-C benchmark assesses a database’s performance under extreme conditions. It challenges a database to maintain data accuracy under significant stress, guarantee data consistency during software and hardware failure, and ensure data availability, consistency, and integrity under stress conditions. TPC-C is recognized as one of the most authoritative OLTP benchmarks in the industry.

PolarDB’s record-breaking performance is driven by its innovative architecture. Its Limitless Architecture features a “three-layer decoupling” design, which enhances efficiency by enabling the independent scaling of computing, memory, and storage for optimal elasticity. This exceptional performance is further boosted through software-hardware integration and advanced database kernel optimization technologies, including transaction processing improvement, index structure refinements, and I/O path enhancements.

“With innovative architecture, managing cloud-native databases will be as simple as ‘building blocks’. We will continue to support our customers in effectively managing and utilizing data to thrive in the digital era,” Li added.

PolarDB is a cloud-native relational database designed for business-critical applications that require fast performance, high concurrency, and automatic scaling. This solution has supported the digital transformation of over 10,000 enterprise customers across various sectors worldwide, including TNG eWallet, the largest fintech platform in Malaysia; Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), a major player in Chinese TV production based in Hong Kong; enish, Inc., a mobile game development company in Japan; and DOKU, one of Indonesia’s leading payment technology firms.

Alibaba Cloud offers a broad range of self-developed, cloud-native database products, including the relational database PolarDB, data warehouse AnalyticDB, multimodal database Lindorm, and Data Management Service (DMS), among others. For the fifth year in a row, Alibaba Cloud has been named a Leader in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud Database Management Systems (DBMS).