• Vector 5.1 is available in the Amazon AWS Marketplace and the Microsoft Azure Marketplace for deployment in the cloud.

• Function-based encryption – The SQL functions AES_ENCRYPT_VARCHAR and AES_DECRYPT_VARCHAR allow AES encryption at the application level by using encryption options on DML such as SELECT, INSERT, and UPDATE statements.

• Column masking – The MASKED attribute can be assigned to columns so that unprivileged users cannot view the data. The MASKED [AS {BASIC | NULL | 0 | ‘ ‘ }] column attribute can be used on CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE. The UNMASK subject privilege, when assigned, lets the user see the data. A user with the UNMASK privilege can use the SQL function MASK_COLUMN(expr AS {BASIC | NULL | 0 | ‘ ‘ | UNMASK}) in views to selectively unmask data, and control how that data can be interacted with and presented, and who can access it.

• External tables – External tables let you read from and write to data sources stored outside of Vector. The data source must be one that Apache Spark is able to read from and write to, such as files stored in formats like CSV or tables in external database systems. After the external table is defined with the CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE syntax, queries can be run directly against the external data.

• MEDIAN and PERCENTILE_CONT aggregate functions – MEDIAN returns the median value. PERCENTILE_CONT returns a value that corresponds to the given fraction (n) in the sort order, where n is greater than 0 and less than 1. PERCENTILE_CONT (.5)... is the same as MEDIAN.

• Support for Vector tables in database procedures – The following SQL statements are now supported:

• Alterable min-max index – You can create or drop a min-max index for a table with the ALTER TABLE...ADD|DROP MINMAX statement and add or drop columns to and from a min-max index for a table with the ALTER TABLE…ALTER MINMAX ADD|DROP COLUMN statement. In addition, you can use the WITH [NO]MINMAX_SAMPLES option on the CREATE TABLE [AS SELECT], DECLARE GLOBAL TEMPORARY TABLE, and ALTER TABLE…ADD MINMAX statements. A sampled min-max index is used by the optimizer when generating automatic histograms and allows the optimizer to produce better query plans faster.

• Nullable unique keys – Columns that you specify as unique or that you use as part of a table-level unique constraint can be nullable. There can be multiple rows with NULL. For multi-column keys (table-level unique constraint), uniqueness is enforced only on keys columns with non-null entries. Likewise, referential constraints are enforced only on non-null entries.

• Time zone files from the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA). When installing Vector you must select an IANA time zone, which becomes the value assigned to the Vector environment variable II_TIMEZONE_NAME.

• Performance improvements – Vector performance is improved through internal features such as update propagation improvements, parallel build of shared hash tables, unique string area, and decompression into small data types.