  AsterixDB is a new, full-function BDMS (Big Data Management System) with a
feature set that distinguishes it from other platforms in today's open source
Big Data ecosystem. Its features make it well-suited to applications like web
data warehousing, social data storage and analysis, and other use cases related
to Big Data. AsterixDB has a flexible NoSQL style data model; a query language
that supports a wide range of queries; a scalable runtime; partitioned,
LSM-based data storage and indexing (including B+-tree, R-tree, and text
indexes); support for external as well as natively stored data; a rich set of
built-in types; support for fuzzy, spatial, and temporal types and queries; a
built-in notion of data feeds for ingestion of data; and transaction support
akin to that of a NoSQL store.
  Development of AsterixDB began in 2009 and led to a mid-2013 initial open
source release. This paper is the first complete description of the resulting
open source AsterixDB system. Covered herein are the system's data model, its
query language, and its software architecture. Also included are a summary of
the current status of the project and a first glimpse into how AsterixDB
performs when compared to alternative technologies, including a parallel
relational DBMS, a popular NoSQL store, and a popular Hadoop-based SQL data
analytics platform, for things that both technologies can do. Also included is
a brief description of some initial trials that the system has undergone and
the lessons learned (and plans laid) based on those early "customer"
engagements.
