Rakuten Kobo, Inc. Tenders RavenDB over Couchbase to Manage its’ Massive eBook store

Rakuten Kobo, Inc has a massive library of eBooks. Millions of users access their library over multiple devices. Each book has its own unique set of highlights every user marks into the text for safekeeping. It’s a lot to manage. Especially as they continue to expand their library, user base, and features.

They need a database that can handle their current load, especially during times when suddenly everybody wants to curl up with a glass of wine, their smartphone and read a good book.

A data set was simulated

Rakuten Kobo, Inc. watched RavenDB and Couchbase work through a Terabyte database with over 1.35 billion documents to see which offered better overall value. The winner would be their new database of choice.

Once the test was complete, Rakuten Kobo, Inc. chose RavenDB.

• RavenDB stored the data at ⅓ of the storage needed by Couchbase
• Couchbase required 12 times the resources to ingest the data
• RavenDB outperformed Couchbase by orders of magnitude when using queries under load
• RavenDB cloud budget configurations were 80% cheaper
• Rakuten Kobo could update every minor release of RavenDB without any impact to availability or performance. They could restart a node quickly with no interruption in service to their users.

“We develop RavenDB to be the database developers find the most convenient to work with. We build into RavenDB features that accomplish the most costing everyone the least headache.” Said Oren Eini, RavenDB CEO. “I am pleased to see the development team at Rakuten Kobo enjoy significant improvements using our solution.”

The full results of the test are available to the public.

About Rakuten Kobo, Inc.

Rakuten Kobo Inc. is one of the world’s biggest digital booksellers. Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo enables millions of readers worldwide to read anytime, anywhere, on any device. Rakuten Kobo connects readers to stories using thoughtful and personalized curation of eBooks and audiobooks, and the best dedicated devices and apps for reading. With the singular focus of making reading the finest experience, Kobo’s open platform allows people to fit reading into their busy lives.

About RavenDB

RavenDB is a NoSQL Distributed Database that gives you high performance under heavy load while keeping all ACID promises. RavenDB enables millions of developers to get their project through their release cycle faster with an easy to use setup, putting additional functionality inside the core features of its database like automatic indexing, Map Reduce, and full text search, and requiring as little overhead as possible to operate.

Live developers are available to give you a free demo of RavenDB at your convenience.