Becoming an InterSystems IRIS Power User
Once you are comfortable working with Python and InterSystems IRIS® data platform, you are ready to take the next step and unlock the full potential of the platform. InterSystems IRIS is far more than a database. It is a unified data platform that offers powerful, integrated capabilities across interoperability, analytics, multi-model storage, and AI-enablement. InterSystems IRIS delivers the scale and speed of modern cloud-native systems, the interoperability of enterprise middleware, and the performance of an in-process analytics platform, all in one cohesive environment.
This section introduces you to these advanced features which allow you to build smarter, faster, and more connected applications. Becoming an InterSystems IRIS power user means expanding beyond traditional development patterns and leveraging the architectural strengths of this platform.
Building Interoperability Productions with Python
InterSystems IRIS is a platform designed for integration and orchestration. Its interoperability features—such as message routing, persistent queues, and businesses processes—can all be extended using Python.
Using the Python Gateway and PEX frameworkOpens in a new tab, you can embed Python code directly into your interoperability productionsOpens in a new tab. This enables real-time interaction with Python-based services. For example:
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You can create a business service in Python that ingests data from an external API.
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You can define a business process that calls a Python machine learning model to make a decision.
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You can develop a business operation in Python that pushes transformed data to an external system.
If you are building integrations between systems, Python can now be a full participant in your InterSystems IRIS production pipelines, meaning that Python code can participate in messaging, tracing, error handling, and orchestration like any native component. The gateway-based approach allows InterSystems IRIS to invoke external Python modules as part of real-time workflows, making it ideal for hybrid architecture or multi-system data flows.
Taking Advantage of InterSystems IRIS’s Multi-Model and Analytics Features
InterSystems IRIS supports multi-model data access, allowing you to store and query data using relational, object, document, and key-value paradigms all in one system. Its architecture supports real-time analytics, embedded business intelligence, vector search, and even natural language processing—all from a single platform. You combine these models to suit your application’s needs and access them from Python.
Some Key Capabilities to Explore as a Power User
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Integrated Business Intelligence: InterSystems IRIS includes dashboards and pivot tables that you can integrate into your applications.
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Vector Search: InterSystems IRIS supports native vector storage and indexing for AI workloads, such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). You can build hybrid applications combining Python LLM orchestration with in-IRIS vector search for high performance using libraries such as LangChain and Hugging Face.
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Adaptive Analytics: InterSystems IRIS provides a virtual data model layer between InterSystems IRIS, Business Intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence client tools. This common data model abstracts away differing definitions and calculations, providing a unified approach to working with your business operations.
Mastering Globals: Unlocking High-Performance Data Modeling
To truly harness InterSystems IRIS’s performance capabilities, it is worth understanding globalsOpens in a new tab, the native multi-dimensional, hierarchical data structures at the core of InterSystems IRIS.
Globals offer:
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Schema-less, key-value styled storage with deep nesting.
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Extremely fast read-write performance even at large scales.
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Support for real-time telemetry, hierarchical document modeling, and non-relational use cases.
While not required for typical SQL-based applications, globals are key reason why many high-throughput systems run on InterSystems IRIS. Python can interact with globals via the Native API (out-of-process) or Embedded Python (in-process), making it easier to explore and prototype new storage models.
If you are building performance-critical applications, globals are an indispensable part of the InterSystems IRIS toolkit. Understanding how globals work will elevate your ability to optimize performance, customize data structures, and take full advantage of the InterSystems IRIS engine.
ObjectScript: The Native Language of InterSystems IRIS
ObjectScriptOpens in a new tab is the native language of InterSystems IRIS. Just like Python, ObjectScript is an object oriented dynamic, interpreted language with full polymorphic dispatch. Written in C, both languages use reference counting for object lifetimes. These similarities make it easy to work with the two languages together. However, once you begin exploring ObjectScript, you will find a language that is expressive, compact, and designed specifically for data-centric programming. Though you can utilize 90% of the distinguishing features of InterSystems IRIS by using Embedded Python, consider using ObjectScript to completely make use of InterSystems IRIS.
What Makes ObjectScript Special
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It is optimized for data operations: Globals, objects, indexes, and storage strategies are all native to the language.
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You can write compact, high-performance logic with less code than with other languages.
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It allows seamless translation between different data storage paradigms.
Embracing the Best of All Worlds: Python, ObjectScript, and Globals
Being a power user in InterSystems IRIS does not mean choosing one language or access method over another. It means knowing when and how to use each. With Embedded Python, you can combine the best of modern scripting with the unique strengths of InterSystems IRIS.
Here are some practices to consider:
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Use SQL for declarative access and compatibility.
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Use Globals for unmatched performance and flexibility.
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Use Python for AI, modeling, data science, or custom algorithms.
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Use ObjectScript to bridge it all, especially when building classes, services, and complex business logic inside the InterSystems IRIS process.
InterSystems IRIS is unique because it does not force you to choose between modernity and performance, or openness and reliability. It invites you to build complete systems, with the freedom to code where you are most comfortable, and the power to go deeper when you need to.
Moving forward
By stepping into these capabilities, you are no longer just writing Python code that connects to a database. Rather, you are building intelligent, integrated systems that can scale, adapt, and evolve. InterSystems IRIS is different by design, and by learning to use its full platform capabilities through Python, you become a different kind of developer: a power user capable of building data-driven applications that move faster and do more.
Your Python journey with InterSystems IRIS does not end here. There are always new and exciting Python InterSystems IRIS applications being created, whether they are official productions developed by InterSystems or open-source projects created by members on the OpenExchangeOpens in a new tab. Join the InterSystems Developer CommunityOpens in a new tab to immerse yourself in the growing Python developer community and continue learning more by visiting the Online LearningOpens in a new tab platform and checking out more in documentation.
