R-Style Softlab to replace Oracle with Apache Cassandra in remote banking systems

R-Style Softlab has announced a move to the open-source Apache Cassandra platform as a replacement for the Oracle relational database management system in high-load components of remote banking systems.

The decision followed the successful completion of a complex task for one of the country's largest banks: with data volumes and workloads growing, an architectural solution was needed to scale the platform supporting mobile and online banking. In preparation for the project, comprehensive studies of various database management systems were carried out, and Apache Cassandra was identified as the leader in performance and scalability potential.

Because relational databases and NoSQL systems operate on significantly different principles, substantial changes to the solution's functionality and architecture were required during the project and its preparation for production use. Mechanisms were developed to partition and manage large pools of customers, functionality was implemented to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the entire system, and tools were created to enable this distributed system to interact with the bank's core back-office systems.

According to R-Style Softlab, the new architecture offers several advantages for the bank's business. The centralized database had only allowed the solution to be scaled vertically, by adding new hardware. The new architecture enabled horizontal scaling by adding nodes, without requiring additional expensive foreign-made equipment. The bank gained virtually unlimited scaling capabilities, and the solution makes it possible to replace the costly Oracle database management system with an open-source system, a decisive advantage in the current circumstances.

"In our view, the successful delivery of a project like this at a major bank demonstrates the considerable potential of open-source software and its use by enterprise customers when processing large volumes of data under heavy transaction loads. We plan to continue developing this area and are offering Russian customers an inexpensive way to process data and scale databases horizontally using the InterBank RS platform."

Artem Oganesyan, Deputy Director of the Digital Solutions Department at R-Style Softlab