How OceanBase Crushed the TPC‑H Benchmark with HTAP Innovation

HTAP: The Database's Original Intent and Future

HTAP (Hybrid Transaction and Analytical Processing) combines online transaction processing (TP) and online analytical processing (AP) in a single system, eliminating costly ETL steps and enabling real‑time analysis, a capability identified by Gartner in 2014 as a key competitive advantage.

OceanBase Embeds HTAP in Its DNA

Developed internally at Alibaba/Ant Group since 2010, OceanBase evolved from a TP‑focused system to a true HTAP engine, achieving a world‑record 15.26 million QphH in the TPC‑H benchmark on May 20 2021, making it the only Chinese‑developed database to top both TP and AP rankings.

The journey involved building a cost‑based optimizer (2014), distributed execution (2016), vectorized execution and resource isolation for TP/AP (2019‑2020), and integrating OceanBase File System (OFS) for virtually unlimited storage.

The Three Mountains Behind the TPC‑H Record

Key challenges include massive capacity and scalability, strong query‑optimization for complex analytical workloads, and effective resource isolation between TP and AP requests. OceanBase addressed these with horizontal scaling across hundreds of nodes, cache‑aware vectorized processing, and virtualized resource groups.

Where is the Boundary of HTAP? Future Direction

OceanBase aims to simplify system complexity for customers while maintaining its core TP strengths, avoiding trade‑offs that favor AP at the expense of transaction performance. The roadmap focuses on enhancing HTAP capabilities, reducing operational overhead, and continuing to push the limits of hybrid processing.