Columnar database management
Analysis of products and issues in column-oriented database management systems. Related subjects include:
Are row-oriented RDBMS obsolete?
If Mike Stonebraker is to be believed, the era of columnar data stores is upon us.
Whether or not you buy completely into Mike’s claims, there certainly are cool ideas in his latest columnar offering, from startup Vertica Systems. The Vertica corporate site offers little detail, but Mike tells me that the product’s architecture closely resembles that of C-Store, which is described in this November, 2005 paper.
The core ideas behind Vertica’s product are as follows. Read more
Mike Stonebraker Blasts “One Size Fits All”
When it comes to DBMS inventors, Mike Stonebraker is the next closest thing to Codd. And he’s become a huge non-believer in the idea that one DBMS architecture meets all needs.
Frankly, there isn’t much in that paper that hasn’t already been said in this blog, except for the part that is specifically relevant to one of his startups, StreamBase. Still, it’s nice to have the high-powered agreement.
More recently, the argument in that paper has been extended with a benchmark-filled follow-up based on another Stonebraker startup, Vertica.
| Categories: Columnar database management, Database compression, StreamBase, Theory and architecture, Vertica Systems | Leave a Comment |
TransRelational(TM) nonsense
Database guru Christopher J. Date is apparently accepting money from attendees to his seminars on TransRelational(TM) database archicture, so that he can tell them about an as-yet unreleased product from Required Technologies, Inc.
This is regrettable on multiple levels.
1. Required Technologies shut down product development in 2002, after running through $30 million; there’s great acrimony between investors and the CEO; and lawsuits are likely.
2. Required’s product never did most of what Date seems to be claiming it now does. It was a read-oriented columnar data store, much like Sybase IQ or a number of other products from younger companies. Read more