RisingWave Newsletter Feb 2024

This year, February graced us with an extra day—an additional day to fit in additional activities. With a jam-packed month behind us, let's dive into all the awesome things we've been up to.

Once again, we're thrilled to unveil a plethora of exciting updates for both RisingWave Cloud and RisingWave Database. Scroll below to discover the latest! With several events already under our belt since the start of the year, we are gearing up for the avalanche of events to come in March. Join us online or in person: check out the Upcoming Events to find out more. Finally, the call for the Stream Team program will be open for two more days! Make sure to send your application if you are an open-source RisingWave user or building a POC with RisingWave.

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RisingWave Cloud

• Enhanced query editor. To better present the catalog, we added necessary hidden attributes to each table and materialized view (MV) for better clarity.

• More metrics added to the cluster status. To improve the observability of the hosted clusters in RisingWave Cloud, we added more metrics to the cluster status page.

• Improved stability and usability. We have been continuously fixing various known issues related to cluster status, billing tracking, source configuration, and VPC connection stability.

RisingWave Database

• QuickJS integration. RisingWave now seamlessly runs JavaScript code within streaming pipelines. One can leverage their web dev expertise and familiar syntax to prototype and deploy UDFs with speed and agility.
• SQL UDFs introduced. We've introduced SQL UDFs to help you maintain cleaner, more manageable code. Especially when dealing with lengthy streaming queries, SQL UDFs offer a practical solution for organizing and reusing code effectively.

• Introducing WASM UDFs. For users seeking high-performance, native execution of custom logic, we introduced WASM UDFs. WASM is a versatile technology that allows code written in languages like Rust to run efficiently within your RisingWave environment. Getting started with WASM UDFs is easy! Utilize our Rust SDK to effortlessly compile your code into WASM format. Detailed instructions are available in our documentation. WASM,?SQL,?and JS UDFs are currently focused on compute-only tasks. If your UDF needs external network access or third-party libraries,?consider Python or Java UDFs,?which run on separate servers for enhanced flexibility and security.

• Adaptive scaling. This feature automatically adjusts the parallelism of your streaming jobs based on your cluster size. As you add new nodes, RisingWave automatically distributes the workload, ensuring optimal resource utilization.
• Single-node mode introduced. For developers and testers seeking a simplified environment, we're introducing single-node mode. This pre-release deployment option consolidates all RisingWave components into a single process, storing metadata and streaming states locally on your machine. While Kubernetes and disaggregated architectures remain the preferred choices for production deployments, single-node mode offers a convenient way to test, experiment, and explore RisingWave's capabilities.

• To refresh the schema registry of your source connector, see how the new FORMAT and ENCODE options for the ALTER SOURCE command can help you do so.
• New ways to create user-defined functions (UDFs) in RisingWave. There are now options to Use UDFs in JavaScript, Use UDFs in Rust, and to create a SQL UDF.
• Learn how to interact with RisingWave from your Python applications by using the SQLAlchemy library to connect to RisingWave.
• For details on how to change and update materialized views and sinks with dependencies, see Alter streaming jobs with dependencies.
• See how to Set up secure connections to RisingWave with SSL/TLS for improved communication security between the client and server.
• Solve high-latency performance issues in RisingWave by referring to the Troubleshoot high latency guide.

• RisingWave Storage Engine Optimization: Higher Performance at Lower Cost
• Unlocking the Power of Data with RisingWave's Enhanced Iceberg Connector
• From Orders to Insights: Leveraging Materialized Views for E-commerce Dashboards
• RisingWave Labs and Voltron Data Collaborate to Accelerate Stream Processing

• (Feb 29, virtual) Is Kafka a New Data Lake
• (Mar 4, virtual) Real-Time Analytics with RisingWave (stream processing workshop at DataTalks.Club
• (Mar 14, virtual) StarRocks Connect: RisingWave
• (Mar 19-20, in person) Kafka Summit London (booth 206)

Calling all trailblazers in stream processing! Your project could be the star of our next community blog post. Whether you're a seasoned open-source RisingWave enthusiast or crafting a groundbreaking POC, we want your story. Craft a brief blurb (2–3 sentences) sharing your unique use case, and seize the opportunity to shine in our vibrant community. As a token of our appreciation, claim an exclusive t-shirt. Submit your blurb by February 29, 2024, and let's showcase the innovation within our community! Apply here.