We are happy to share some insights about PingCAP drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
We recently published three Ventana Research 2023 Data Platforms Value Indexes, which evaluate technology vendors and products that provide individual and combined analytic -1.png?width=400&height=200&name=VR_VI_Data_Platforms_Logo%20(1)-1.png)
and operational data platform support. At Ventana Research, we continue to believe that, for most use cases, there is a clear choice between analytic and operational data platforms to best meet your organization’s needs. We developed three technology assessment and buyers’ guides to focus on overall data platform requirements as well as specific analytic data platform and operational data platform use cases.
In all of our Value Indexes, we utilize a structured research methodology built on evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria and derived from RFP responses and a vendor selection process for analytics and business intelligence. For each of the Value Indexes, we evaluated PingCAP and other vendors in seven categories: five relevant to the product — Adaptability, Capability, Manageability, Reliability and Usability — and two related to the vendor — TCO/ROI and Validation. To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our market research, including our Benchmark Research on Analytics and Data.
PingCAP was founded in 2015 to develop and deliver a new approach to managing, scaling and maintaining databases. The company offers TiDB, a MySQL-compatible hybrid operational and analytic processing database, as well as the TiDB Cloud managed service. PingCAP is primarily used for operational workloads and is not positioned as an analytic data platform, although it does provide functionality that supports analytic use cases. As such, it was included in our overall Data Platforms Value Index as well as the Operational Data Platforms Value Index but not the Analytic Data Platforms Value Index.
In the overall Data Platforms Value Index, PingCAP was categorized as a Vendor of Merit, ranking 12th overall in this Value Index evaluation. It ranked 12th in Product Experience where it performed well in Reliability and Capability. 
It ranked 13th in Customer Experience. Its overall performance was impacted by its lower ranking in the Product Experience category, which represents 80% of the weighting in the overall Value Index.
As a newer vendor developing a new approach to distributed data processing, PingCAP has focused its attention on core database functionality. As such, there is naturally room for improvement in complementary functionality. For example, while TiDB is designed to provide scalability and resiliency, in Reliability, where it ranked 13th, PingCAP could examine functionality for facilitating the management of performance and scalability.
Our assessment finds that PingCAP could also perform better in the areas of user and process integration, which was reflected in its 13th place Adaptability ranking.
PingCAP was also categorized as a Vendor of Merit in the Operational Data Platforms Value Index, ranking 17th overall in this Value Index evaluation. It ranked 16th in Product Experience, where it ranked best in the Capability category. It ranked 18th in Customer Experience and ranked best in Validation. This assessment was based on PingCAP’s data platform products generally available as of September 30, 2022.
Organizations should evaluate their data platform requirements for operational and analytic workloads to ensure the existing products and vendors are meeting their needs. If their current data platforms are not satisfying those requirements, they should consider whether PingCAP can help meet their needs.
This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of data platforms in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Value Index by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Click below to read the individual reports:
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