docs/en/introduction/what_is_starrocks.md
StarRocks is a next-generation, blazing-fast massively parallel processing (MPP) database designed to make real-time analytics easy for enterprises. It is built to power sub-second queries at scale.
StarRocks has an elegant design. It encompasses a rich set of features including fully vectorized engine, newly designed cost-based optimizer (CBO), and intelligent materialized view. As such, StarRocks can deliver a query speed far exceeding database products of its kind, especially for multi-table joins.
StarRocks is ideal for real-time analytics on fresh data. Data can be ingested at a high speed and updated and deleted in real time. StarRocks empowers users to create tables that use various schemas, such as flat, star, and snowflake schemas.
Compatible with MySQL protocols and standard SQL, StarRocks has out-of-the-box support for all major Business Intelligence (BI) tools, such as Tableau and Power BI. StarRocks does not rely on any external components. It is an integrated data analytics platform that allows for high scalability, high availability, and simplified management and maintenance.
StarRocks is licensed under Apache 2.0, available at the StarRocks GitHub repository (see the StarRocks license). StarRocks (i) links to or calls functions from third party software libraries, the licenses of which are available in the folder licenses-binary; and (ii) incorporates third party software code, the licenses of which are available in the folder licenses.
StarRocks meets varied enterprise analytics requirements, including OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) multi-dimensional analytics, real-time analytics, high concurrency analytics, customized reporting, ad-hoc queries, and unified analytics.
The MPP framework and vectorized execution engine enable users to choose between various schemas to develop multi-dimensional analytical reports. Scenarios:
User behavior analysis
User profiling, label analysis, user tagging
High-dimensional metrics report
Self-service dashboard
Service anomaly probing and analysis
Cross-theme analysis
Financial data analysis
System monitoring analysis
StarRocks uses the Primary Key table to implement real-time updates. Data changes in a TP (Transaction Processing) database can be synchronized to StarRocks in a matter of seconds to build a real-time warehouse.
Scenarios:
Online promotion analysis
Logistics tracking and analysis
Performance analysis and metrics computation for the financial industry
Quality analysis for livestreaming
Ad placement analysis
Cockpit management
Application Performance Management (APM)
StarRocks leverages performant data distribution, flexible indexing, and intelligent materialized views to facilitate user-facing analytics at high concurrency:
Advertiser report analysis
Channel analysis for the retail industry
User-facing analysis for SaaS
Multi-tabbed dashboard analysis
StarRocks provides a unified data analytics experience.
One system can power various analytical scenarios, reducing system complexity and lowering Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
StarRocks unifies data lakes and data warehouses. Data in a lakehouse can be managed all in StarRocks. Latency-sensitive queries that require high concurrency can run on StarRocks. Data in data lakes can be accessed by using external catalogs or external tables provided by StarRocks.