Hazelcast Inc., a major provider of in-memory computing solutions, today launched a managed cloud version of its flagship product created specifically to support off-premises workloads.

Hazelcast Cloud is based on the company’s Hazelcast IMDG system, the most popular open-source product in the in-memory data grid category. In-memory data grids serve the same basic purpose as in-memory databases such as SAP SE’s HANA. Both enable enterprises to store and analyze their records on RAM instead of slower storage drives, which speeds up processing.

But there are a number of nuanced distinctions that set the two categories apart. Perhaps the biggest difference is that in-memory data grids are typically used in an auxiliary role. They can complement a traditional database with no in-memory features, providing a speed boost for workloads such as fraud detection applications that have to process information in near real-time.

Hazelcast Cloud enables companies to deploy data grids in infrastructure-as-a-service environments without having to manage the underlying hardware resources manually. The service works with Amazon Web Services on launch, with support for Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform set to arrive later this year.

“Using Hazelcast Cloud, you don’t need to know anything about servers, instances or any other operational details, you only configure your cluster and start using it,” Hazelcast Chief Technology Officer Enes Akar wrote in a blog post. “The Hazelcast team manages all the tedious operational tasks so that you can focus on your own business.”

Besides automating low-level maintenance tasks, Hazelcast Cloud carries over a number of features from IMDG Enterprise HD, the company’s commercial version of its data grid. It enables companies to encrypt the data in their deployments and require that applications authenticate themselves before accessing records. The service also offers capabilities meant to protect against outages, including the ability to spread a cluster across multiple cloud data centers.

Hazelcast Cloud comes in three editions. The first two are designed for small-scale test and development environments, while a third version called Hazelcast Cloud Dedicated targets production applications. It removes the limits on cluster memory size in the other tiers while adding on a number of extra features including access to priority support.

The company sees the service coming handy for a number of cloud use cases. Hazelcast Cloud can cache important data so applications can access them faster, as well support so-called serverless functions running on services such as AWS’ Lambda.

Photo:  Hazelcast