Heimdall Database Proxy vs TiCDC

Heimdall Database Proxy is a data access layer between an application and its database, routing, caching, and securing SQL queries. It can send reads to replicas and writes to primary databases, with replication-lag detection to support consistency. Frequently used queries can be cached with automatic expiry and invalidation rules to reduce database load and latency. Connection pooling can reduce front-side to back-side connections by up to a 1000:1 ratio. The proxy provides live SQL visibility, bottleneck identification, and auto-tuning recommendations, and can run as a transparent sidecar on-premise or in the cloud. Supported databases include MySQL, PostgreSQL, Amazon RDS, Oracle, SQL Server, MariaDB, DB2, Greenplum, and Redshift. Listed cloud integrations include AWS, Azure, Oracle, Google Cloud, and Redis. Active Directory integration supports authentication and authorization. Enterprise Plus includes data masking, GDPR auditing, and honey-tokens. A free Greenplum Community Edition is available for Greenplum use, with pooling, LDAP synchronization for one server, and SQL performance analytics. The AWS Marketplace listing offers a free 30-day trial; technical support for the Community Edition requires an Enterprise upgrade.

TiCDC is a free, open-source, self-hosted tool for replicating incremental data changes from TiDB. It captures TiKV change logs, sorts the changes, and exports row-based data to systems including TiDB, MySQL-compatible databases, Kafka, Amazon S3, GCS, Azure Blob Storage, and NFS. Recommended Kafka formats include Canal-JSON, Avro, and Debezium. Filters can select databases, tables, DMLs, and DDLs, while the Open API can check task status, change task configuration, and create or delete tasks. TiCDC supports replication between TiDB clusters for disaster recovery, with second-level RPO and minute-level RTO, as well as bidirectional replication for multi-active deployments. It can be deployed with a new cluster or added to an existing one; production guidance recommends at least two instances. The system has no single point of failure and allows nodes to be added or removed dynamically. Delivery is at least once, so failures can lead to repeated statements or Kafka messages.