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HPE NonStop SQL

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by Hewlett Packard Enterprise · since 1987 · also known as NonStop SQL/MX, NonStop SQL/MP, Tandem NonStop SQL, SQL/MX

Fault-tolerant, shared-nothing SQL on HPE NonStop, built for payment switches that can never go down.

relationaldatabase engineproprietarylegacy
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Overview

NonStop SQL is the relational database of HPE's NonStop platform (originally Tandem Computers), where every component is redundant and processes run in checkpointed pairs so hardware failures do not interrupt transactions. It was one of the first shared-nothing parallel SQL databases and still runs ATM and card-payment switches, stock exchanges and telecom systems that demand continuous availability. SQL/MX is the current ANSI-oriented engine on NonStop X and Virtualized NonStop, alongside the older SQL/MP. It is extraordinary at what it does, but it only runs on NonStop, skills are scarce, and new projects rarely start there.

Transactional apps (OLTP)

Strengths & trade-offs

Strengths

  • +Process pairs and redundant hardware deliver continuous availability through component failures
  • +Shared-nothing parallelism with linear scale-out across CPUs
  • +Online reorganisation and maintenance without downtime
  • +Decades of use in payment switches and exchanges

Trade-offs

  • −Runs only on HPE NonStop systems
  • −Very small and ageing skills pool
  • −High platform cost compared with commodity clusters
  • −Limited modern features (JSON, vectors, cloud services)

Great for

  • +ATM and card-payment authorisation switches
  • +Stock exchange order matching and settlement
  • +Telecom home-location and subscriber registers

Think twice for

  • −Commodity cloud deployments
  • −Analytics or data science
  • −Teams without NonStop expertise

Capabilities

Native or official first-party support · 9 of 25 tracked

✓Transactions
✓Joins
✓Secondary indexes
✓Triggers
✓Stored procedures
✓Durable persistence
✓Encryption at rest
✓Role-based access
✓Online schema changes
–Full-text search
–Vector search
–Geospatial
–JSON
–Change data capture
–Materialized views
–TTL / expiry
–Pub/Sub
–Columnar storage
–In-memory
–Compression
–Time travel
–Branching
–Streaming ingest
–Offline sync
–Runs in WebAssembly

Scale & consistency

Comfortable data size
Large · ≤ 1 PB
Horizontal scaling
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
Transactions
Full ACID
Consistency
Strong
Schema
Strict
Architecture
Distributed, Client server
Query languages
SQL

Tables partition across CPUs and nodes in a shared-nothing cluster; RDF provides remote standby databases.

Deployment

Self-hosted Vendor-managed cloud Serverless Embedded Edge Kubernetes operator

Ecosystem

apis & protocolsODBC, JDBC, Embedded SQL (C/COBOL)
client languagesC, COBOL, Java, C++

Alternatives to HPE NonStop SQL

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IBM Db2Relational45.5

IBM's enterprise RDBMS for Linux, UNIX, Windows and z/OS, with BLU columnar and pureScale clustering.

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Oracle DatabaseRelational56.9

The enterprise heavyweight: RAC, Data Guard and a converged engine for SQL, JSON, graph and vectors.

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Volt Active Data (VoltDB)Relational20.7

In-memory, partitioned SQL engine running Java stored procedures serially for millisecond decisioning.

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CockroachDBRelational47.1

Postgres-wire distributed SQL built to survive node, zone and region failures with serializable transactions.

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IBM IMSHierarchical7.7

IBM's 1960s hierarchical database and transaction manager, still running bank and airline cores on z/OS.

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Progress OpenEdgeRelational20.4

Integrated RDBMS plus ABL 4GL application platform behind thousands of ERP and vertical business apps.

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HPE NonStop SQL FAQ

What is HPE NonStop SQL?

HPE NonStop SQL is a relational database by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, first released in 1987. NonStop SQL is the relational database of HPE's NonStop platform (originally Tandem Computers), where every component is redundant and processes run in checkpointed pairs so hardware failures do not interrupt transactions. It was one of the first shared-nothing parallel SQL databases and still runs ATM and card-payment switches, stock exchanges and telecom systems that demand continuous availability. SQL/MX is the current ANSI-oriented engine on NonStop X and Virtualized NonStop, alongside the older SQL/MP. It is extraordinary at what it does, but it only runs on NonStop, skills are scarce, and new projects rarely start there.

Is HPE NonStop SQL open source?

No. HPE NonStop SQL is proprietary, closed-source software.

Does HPE NonStop SQL support ACID transactions?

Yes. HPE NonStop SQL supports full ACID transactions, with strong consistency.

Does HPE NonStop SQL scale horizontally?

HPE NonStop SQL scales horizontally out of the box, with built-in sharding or partitioning. It is comfortable at large scale (≤ 1 PB). It supports cross-region read replicas.

How can I run HPE NonStop SQL?

You can self-host it.

What is HPE NonStop SQL best for?

HPE NonStop SQL is a strong fit for ATM and card-payment authorisation switches; stock exchange order matching and settlement; and telecom home-location and subscriber registers. Think twice for commodity cloud deployments.

What are the best alternatives to HPE NonStop SQL?

Common alternatives to HPE NonStop SQL include IBM Db2, Oracle Database, Volt Active Data (VoltDB), CockroachDB and IBM IMS. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.

How popular is HPE NonStop SQL?

HPE NonStop SQL ranks #412 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (4.3/100), and #132 among relational databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.