As applications grow, every database eventually hits scaling limits. Whether it's storage capacity, concurrent users, query throughput, or I/O bandwidth, single-server architectures have inherent constraints. This guide explains fundamental approaches to database scalability and shows how InterSystems IRIS implements these patterns to support enterprise-scale workloads.

We'll explore two complementary scaling strategies: horizontal scaling for user volume (distributing computational load) and sharding for data volume (partitioning datasets). Understanding the general principles behind these approaches will help you make informed decisions about when and how to scale your IRIS applications.

The examples in this guide use InterSystems IRIS in Docker containers.

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The third developer previews of InterSystems IRIS® data platform, InterSystems IRIS® for Health, and HealthShare® Health Connect 2026.1 have been posted to the WRC developer preview site. Containers can be found on our

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There seems to be a generous use of ClassMethods in ObjectScript code generally. I hope my own experiences aren't representative, but I bet they are. Forgive me for giving away the ending of this article, but in short: don't use them. Unless you can make a pretty convincing case that you have to, just never use them.1

What is a ClassMethod? In an ObjectScript class, you can define methods in two different ways: in a Method, you must instantiate an instance of the class to call the method, and in a ClassMethod, you can call the method without instantiating the class. Of course, in a ClassMethod, you don't have access to any properties of the object (because there's no object), but you can access globals (they are global, after all) and Parameters (which are class constants).

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InterSystems IRIS is built on an architecture that separates the logical organization of data (namespaces) from its physical storage location (databases). Understanding this separation and the distinction between Namespaces and Databases is crucial for effective data management, security, and especially, high-performance data sharing.

In this article, I will discuss these foundational components and provide a practical guide on leveraging global mappings to share native data structures (globals) across different logical environments.

Databases: Physical Reality

A database represents the physical reality of where the data is stored on the disk. First and foremost, it’s a file in a file system called IRIS.dat (e.g., <Install folder>\mgr\user\IRIS.DAT). The maximum size of this file is 32TB. It is the container for all the actual data and the code. Databases are managed by the IRIS kernel, which handles caching, journaling, and transaction logging at the physical file level.

When you install InterSystems IRIS DBMS, the following databases are installed automatically:

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How I Vibecoded a Backend (and Frontend) on InterSystems IRIS

I wanted to try vibecoding a real backend + frontend setup on InterSystems IRIS, ideally using something realistic rather than a toy example. The goal was simple: take an existing, well-known persistent package in IRIS and quickly build a usable UI and API around it — letting AI handle as much of the boilerplate as possible. Here is the result of the experiments.

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How many times have you had to receive or generate a JSON and wished you could work on it using DTLs without having to deal with DynamicObjects trying to remember the name of each field? Do you want to break down and make your giant JSON file more digestible?

In my case, never, but I thought that someone might find it useful to have a feature that captures your JSON and breaks it down into a series of ObjectScript classes that you can work with more easily and conveniently.

Well then...behold JSON2Class in all its glory!

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I've modified the class file, but messages still arrive as a single line (e.g., "H|.../rQ|.../rL") instead of separate lines in the ASTM service. The <ENQ>..<EOT> header looks correct, logs show no errors, and the service receives messages fine. Is there an Ensemble 2018.1 engine setting (like line terminator handling or TCP framing) to fix the line splitting? ​

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Hey Community,

Enjoy the new video on InterSystems Developers YouTube:

Advancing Healthcare Interoperability - Strategy and Vision @ Ready 2025

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_1mBIv-lGco
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I have always struggled with Iterating through a JSON response to pull out certain fields into a Data Class Structure to use to populate fields in a DTL. So I defined the whole structure for the following JSON, with the base structure extending Ens.Response, %XML.Adaptor, and %JSON.Adaptor.

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Hi, Community!

Do you need a way to securely manage your passwords, API keys, and other credentials? See how the Secure Wallet in InterSystems IRIS® data platform can help:

What Is the InterSystems Secure Wallet?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/LEh_ktmOfKM?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=LEh_ktmOfKM
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Hi Gang!

Did you know you can deploy InterSystems IRIS Community Edition on the cloud without paying for a license? You can try for free, and it could even come in handy if you want to show off that shiny new app you've created (maybe for the full stack competition..?)

In this article I will provide a complete walkthrough on how to deploy IRIS on Amazon Web Services (AWS), and will also add a follow up for deploying on Azure.

Now before I begin the walkthrough, I want to admit that I was terrified of using AWS the first time because I'd seen memes about how easy it is to rack up costs on AWS. So if you're thinking the same, I suggest you start by signing up to a Free Tier Account, which gives you $100 free credit to evaluate, and automatically shuts off to prevent charges. InterSystems IRIS Community Edition has a free license so if you pair the two, you can deploy without risk and completely for free. (Disclaimer: although I'm sure this is true, please do read the free account terms and make your own decisions 😅 )

Note, this article walks through deploying IRIS Community on AWS, however the same guide can be followed to deploy IRIS for Health Community Edition, or with Bring-your-own-licence editions of IRIS and IRIS for Health, to deploy a fully licensed, production version of IRIS on AWS.

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Hey Community!

We're happy to share a new video from our InterSystems Developers YouTube:

Multi-threading an HL7 Interface and scaling beyond FIFO constraints @ Ready 2025

https://www.youtube.com/embed/8QpqZCZsiN4
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In Part 1, we laid the technical foundation of MAIS (Multi-Agent Interoperability Systems). We have successfully wired up the 'Brain', built a robust Adapter using LiteLLM, locked down our API keys with IRIS Credentials, and finally cracked the trick code on the Python interoperability puzzle.

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This article is intended as a beginner level article for people that want to learn how to use OAuth2 in their web applications natively.

There is an accompanying video/demo that may be helpful here:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/4mfWQwcKcMI
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and you can reproduce this locally with the Open Exchange application attached.

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Hello!

In my last article, I went through a walkthrough on how you can try deploying InterSystems IRIS Community Edition, or IRIS for Health Community Edition for free on AWS. In this follow up, I will show the same for the next biggest cloud provider, Microsoft Azure.

Like with AWS, Azure also provides a free offering on sign up, although its a bit less generous - you get $200 free credit to spend in the first month. This does mean you can once again try deploying IRIS Community edition for free on Azure, although I do recommend caution to avoid costly bills.

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