TIL: HTAP Is Not a Replacement for OLTP or OLAP

HTAP is one of the most frequently discussed database architectures today.

The promise sounds simple: one database that can handle both high-concurrency transactions and complex analytical queries.

But there is an important distinction that often gets lost in the discussion:

HTAP does not replace OLTP or OLAP. It fills the middle ground between them.

This becomes clear when looking at the architecture strategy behind GBase Database.

Three Workload Zones, Three Architectures

Rather than treating HTAP as the answer to every database workload, GBase Database maintains three product lines designed for different workload characteristics:

 [OLTP] ───────── [HTAP] ───────── [OLAP]
   8s                 8c                8a
    ↑                  ↑                 ↑
 Transactional       Mixed            Analytical
 workload           workload           workload

The idea is straightforward:

GBase Database(GBase 8s) → transaction-oriented workloads
GBase Database(GBase 8c) → mixed transactional and analytical workloads
GBase Database(GBase 8a MPP Cluster) → analytical and data warehouse workloads

This isn't simply a product segmentation strategy.

It reflects a fundamental database principle:

Architecture should follow workload.

What Makes HTAP Different?

Traditional OLTP systems are optimized for transactions.

Think about banking transactions, order processing, account updates, or other workloads where thousands of users may continuously read and modify relatively small amounts of data.

The priorities are typically:

High concurrency
Low transaction latency
Strong consistency
Fast point lookups
Efficient writes

OLAP has almost the opposite characteristics.

Analytical workloads often involve:

Large table scans
Aggregations
Complex joins
Historical data
Batch processing
Long-running queries

Trying to optimize one architecture for both extremes creates difficult trade-offs.

That's where HTAP becomes useful.

HTAP Lives in the Middle

Consider a retail system.

During the day, the system may need to process thousands of orders, inventory updates, payments, and customer transactions.

At the same time, business teams may want to analyze sales trends, inventory levels, customer behavior, and regional performance.

Waiting for data to be copied into a separate analytical system can introduce latency and operational complexity.

This is a classic HTAP scenario.

GBase Database(GBase 8c) is designed for this type of mixed workload.

Its architecture uses multiple engines, including row, columnar, and in-memory processing, allowing different types of operations to use structures better suited to their requirements.

Conceptually:

                 GBase Database(GBase 8c)
                         │
          ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
          │              │              │
       Row Engine    Column Engine   In-Memory
          │              │              │
       Writes        Analytics       Low latency
          │              │              │
          └──────────────┼──────────────┘
                         ↓
                    Mixed Workload

This makes HTAP particularly interesting for environments where the same data needs to support both operational and analytical workloads.

But HTAP Is Not Always the Best Choice

This is where database selection becomes important.

Suppose your workload is almost entirely transactional.

You have high concurrency, frequent inserts and updates, strict transaction requirements, and relatively limited analytical processing.

Would adding HTAP capabilities automatically make the system better?

Not necessarily.

If your workload is strongly OLTP-oriented, a purpose-built transactional architecture may be a better fit.

That's where GBase Database(GBase 8s) is positioned.

The same principle applies to the opposite extreme.

If your workload is primarily large-scale analytical processing, data warehousing, aggregation, and historical analysis, forcing the workload onto an HTAP platform may introduce unnecessary complexity.

A specialized analytical architecture such as GBase Database(GBase 8a MPP Cluster) can be more appropriate.

A simple way to think about it is:

Workload intensity

OLTP                                      OLAP
 │                                          │
 ▼                                          ▼
[8s]──────────────[8c]────────────────────[8a]
 Pure TX          Mixed TX + AX             Pure AX

The closer your workload moves toward one extreme, the stronger the case for a specialized architecture.

The SUV and Formula 1 Problem

There is a simple analogy.

An HTAP database is like an SUV.

It is designed to handle different kinds of terrain reasonably well.

But that doesn't mean you should enter it into a Formula 1 race.

Likewise, an OLTP database isn't necessarily the right tool for large-scale analytical processing, and an OLAP database isn't designed to replace a high-concurrency transactional system.

The goal isn't to find the database with the longest feature list.

The goal is to find the architecture that matches the workload.