Introducing TileDB Carrara: The Database Designed for Discovery

Today we’re excited to launch TileDB Carrara, a major platform release aimed at transforming how organizations across industries handle complex data to accelerate breakthrough discoveries. Carrara represents a significant evolution in database technology, providing teams with features that support the analysis of common and frontier data types, collaboration across teams, and secure sharing of data and insights. With this release, we’re also introducing unit-based pricing that makes it easy for organizations to get started in analyzing all of their data to solve big problems.

Accelerate Discovery with Frontier Data Analysis

Carrara unlocks new capabilities for managing frontier data, which are novel, multi-dimensional, and yield highly valuable insights. These sophisticated data structures are essential for breakthrough discoveries — from high-precision earthquake prediction systems that integrate seismic, geodetic, and geochemical data, to cancer treatment systems that integrate genomic, molecular, and immunological data.

Traditional databases face significant limitations when handling the complexity of frontier data. TileDB uses multi-dimensional arrays instead of traditional tabular structures to model all data types. Multi-dimensional arrays are often visualized as a grid or table, and each element is accessed using multiple indices. They are especially useful for working with unstructured data like images, time series, or scientific datasets. For example, an image is a 2-D array that includes width and height, while a video is a 3-D array that includes width, height, and time. Genomics data can be 4-D, including samples, genes, conditions, and time points.

“From detecting rare diseases to discovering new drugs, scientists are using TileDB to unlock the potential of all their data, including frontier data like multiomics and biomedical imaging,” said TileDB founder and CEO Stavros Papadopoulos. “Carrara is the next generation of TileDB that will expand the capabilities of our life sciences customers and extend the benefits of working with multi-dimensional data to other industries.”

Key Capabilities for Generating Insights from Complex Data

Designed for discovery, Carrara provides four key capabilities that support teams in generating unprecedented insights from conventional and complex data:

1. Organize: Teams can catalog and access all of their data using a unified system, enabling access from a single pane of glass. TileDB Catalog helps organize structured and unstructured multi-dimensional data with rich metadata and automated indexing. TileDB Filesystem efficiently manages cloud-stored data without local downloads and eliminates redundant copying across analysis stages, thus significantly reducing storage costs.

2. Structure: TileDB Tables and the platform’s multi-dimensional array architecture allow teams to work efficiently with conventional and frontier data formats. This unified approach enables real-time integration of diverse data types — from clinical spreadsheets to complex genomics data — supporting rapid scaling of precision medicine initiatives while reducing computing costs for large-scale bioinformatics pipelines.

3. Collaborate: Carrara introduces team spaces and asset views that transform how research groups share and manage data access, essentially establishing data clean rooms for secure collaboration. These capabilities eliminate traditional bottlenecks among global research teams and enable them to maintain the highest standards of data security and regulatory compliance. With Carrara, teams can transform their object store into a Trusted Research Environment.

4. Analyze: Teams can now analyze any data type using multiple access methods, from the built-in Jupyter Notebook to custom dashboards. The platform supports popular frameworks and multiple programming languages such as Python, R, C#, and JavaScript. Carrara also includes native distributed computing capabilities, which is a key difference between TileDB and other database offerings. This flexibility accelerates the time from sample to insight and the preparation of regulatory submissions.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology researchers who use TileDB Carrara can manage and analyze diverse data types including genomics, transcriptomics, clinical spreadsheets, and imaging data within a single platform, making it easier to conduct complex analyses and share findings securely.

Per-User Pricing Makes it Easy to Get Started

The release of Carrara also introduces a new unit-based pricing model, making it more accessible for organizations to get started. Each unit provides one user seat and two vCPUs (virtual central processing units), allowing for flexible scaling based on needs. TileDB can provide teams with dedicated success engineers with scientific domain expertise and offers tutorials in TileDB Academy to help organizations maximize the platform's potential.

This release marks a significant step forward in database technology, particularly for organizations dealing with complex, multi-modal data types that traditional databases struggle to handle effectively. By combining innovative data structures with comprehensive discovery tools, TileDB Carrara aims to accelerate breakthroughs across industries.

Looking ahead, we plan to expand TileDB’s domain-specific applications and enhance its AI capabilities.

"We envision a product that manages frontier and common data formats as a rigorous, secure, and compliant database while offering the modern experience users want that is centered around natural language interactions and AI-assisted discoveries from the managed data." said Seth Shelnutt, Chief Technology Officer of TileDB.

Ready for a Test Drive?

Is your team ready to generate breakthrough discoveries for a competitive advantage or to take your products or services to the next level? Try TileDB for free today and explore the platform. You can also join the wait list for TileDB Carrara.