Blog | Databases | October 21, 2026 | 4 min read

FastObjects 15.0: Faster Queries Under Load and Encryption Built for the Cyber Resilience Act

By Douglas Dailey

#Databases
Faster Queries Under Load and Encryption Built for the Cyber Resilience Act with FastObjects 15.0

By Douglas Dailey

#Databases

Key Takeaways

  • FastObjects 15.0 raises the maximum index key size from 254 to 2,047 bytes, so long and composite identifiers resolve through indexes instead of class scans.
  • A new Index Hotspot Cache reduces contention when many clients query the same index, and large transactions now commit across parallel threads.
  • AES-GCM authenticated encryption on client/server traffic, OpenSSL 3.5, and signed Windows binaries give ISVs current cryptography to document for the EU Cyber Resilience Act.
In this post:

FastObjects is the database that ships inside the product. ISVs and OEMs embed it in applications sold in volume, which means no DBA travels with it, and every performance fix or security control has to work without operator tuning.

Since FastObjects 14.0 shipped, three requests have come up more than any others from that installed base: identifiers have outgrown the original index limits, consolidated servers are putting more concurrent clients on the same index paths, and security teams want cryptography they can cite in a conformity file. FastObjects 15.0 answers all three.

Longer Index Keys Turn Scans into Lookups

Maximum index significance (the number of bytes from an attribute included in an index) rises from 254 to 2,047. Identifiers have grown since most FastObjects schemas were designed: UUIDs, GS1 keys, device serials, and composite tenant-plus-entity keys. Queries on those attributes previously fell back to class scans, and developers worked around it with denormalized lookup classes or application-side caches. In 15.0, far more of a variable-length string is indexed and compound indexes can hold more or larger attributes, so lookup-heavy access paths such as configuration retrieval, asset lookup by compound identifier, and order retrieval by multi-field key resolve through the index.

Index Hotspot Cache Removes the Contention Penalty

In client/server deployments with many concurrent clients, parallel queries sharing an index competed for the same nodes in the Index Cache, and server CPU climbed with the contention. The new Index Hotspot Cache sits in front of the Index Cache and keeps hot index nodes resident, so parallel queries on the same index no longer slow each other down. For shift changes, batch dashboards, or many terminals reading shared reference data, throughput holds steady under the spike, which in some deployments defers the need to add a read replica.

Commit, Recovery, and Administration Improvements

  • Parallel commit. Large transactions process inserts, deletes, and modifies in parallel threads, shortening the exclusive phase that blocks other operations on the server.
  • Dynamic query plans. The optimizer detects unusual value distributions during execution and changes plan mid-query. Queries with many hundreds of disjunctions no longer block other work.
  • Smaller recovery records. Only modified index headers are written per transaction, a real saving for databases with hundreds of indexes.
  • Database Check during active use. Concurrent check now runs without slowing ongoing operations, so you can verify a production database without waiting for a maintenance window.
  • Conversion Handler for Reorg. The C++ callbacks previously limited to VersAll now drive mass data transformation during offline Reorg.

AES-GCM Encryption and the EU Cyber Resilience Act

FastObjects 15.0 moves to OpenSSL 3.5 with AES for encryption in motion and at rest, PBKDF2 password hashing for new databases, TLS 1.3 key exchange, and AES-GCM authenticated encryption of client-to-server exchanges, replacing legacy SSL cipher configurations. On Windows, every binary is built with Control Flow Guard and digitally signed for Smart App Control.

The timing matters. The EU Cyber Resilience Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/2847) applies reporting obligations from 11 September 2026 and full obligations from 11 December 2027, and any ISV whose product qualifies as a product with digital elements is assembling a technical file now. The regulation is algorithm-neutral, so no database makes an application compliant by itself. What 15.0 provides is current, authenticated cryptography on the client/server path that product security teams can document as state of the art.

Modernized Platforms

FastObjects 15.0 supports Windows 11 and Windows Server 2019, 2022, and 2025 with Visual Studio 2022 and Java 21, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.x and compatible distributions with gcc 11.3 and Java 21. Visual Studio 2026, GCC 14, Java 25, and RHEL 10 are planned for post-GA updates.

Get Started

FastObjects 15.0 is available now from esd.actian.com. Existing customers upgrade in place; the object model, schema, and application code stay as they are. If you are preparing CRA technical documentation, start with the AES-GCM configuration notes in the release documentation. To see FastObjects in a client/server or embedded configuration, book a demo.

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