Cloudant represents a strategic acquisition by IBM® that extends the company’s Big Data and Analytics portfolio to include a fully managed, NoSQL cloud service. Cloudant simplifies the development cycle for creators of fast-growing web and mobile applications, by alleviating the burdens of mundane database administration tasks. Developers are then able to focus on building the next generation of systems of engagement – social and mobile applications – without losing time, money, or sleep managing their database infrastructure and growth. Critically, Cloudant is an enterprise-ready service that supports this infrastructure with guaranteed performance and availability.

Built atop a CouchDB-based NoSQL data layer, Cloudant’s fully managed database-as-a-service (DBaaS) enables applications and their developers to be more agile. As a part of its data layer, clients have access to multi-master replication and mobile device synchronization capabilities for occasionally connected devices. Applications can take advantage of Cloudant’s advanced real-time indexing for ad hoc full text search via Apache Lucene, online analytics via MapReduce, and advanced geospatial querying. Mobile applications can use a durable replication protocol for offline sync and global data distribution, as well as a geo-load balancing capability to ensure cross-data center availability and optimal performance. Cloudant’s RESTful web-based API, flexible schema, and capacity to scale massively are what empower clients to deliver applications to market faster in a cost-effective, DBA-free service model.

This IBM Redbooks® Solution Guide describes the IBM Cloudant features. It is the first in a series of three IBM Redbooks publications on Cloudant. Be sure to read the others: IBM Cloudant: Database-as-a-service Fundamentals, REDP-5126 and IBM Cloudant: Database-as-a-service Advanced Topics, REDP-5189.