Managing Concurrency

In order to manage concurrent access, Data Base Management Systems typically provide the following data manipulation properties, usually packaged within a construct called a “transaction”:

   A — Atomicity
   C — Consistency
   I — Isolation
   D — Durability

These properties provide safety for the application's data and the manipulation of that data within a concurrent environment. The “DBMS ACID” phrase can be Googled for a significant amount of additional material.

gDS manages concurrency in a different way than described above. Some of the above properties are provided by gDS and some are provided by the code that uses gDS.

You might say, “That looks like a step back.” For test platforms, it is not. gDS allows the test platform developer to manage concurrency naturally and efficiently without having to interact with and through the mechanics of a full DBMS and its transactions.

Given that the test platform itself is both the source of concurrent operation and the part-solution to managing it, see the “Building Test Platforms | Managing Concurrency” menu for more details on how gDS and the test platform work together to manage concurrency.