Solid-state memory
Discussion of how developments in solid-state memory will affect database management. Related subjects include:
- Data warehouse appliances
- (in The Monash Report) The future of diskless PCs
Carson Schmidt of Teradata on SSDs
Carson Schmidt is, in essence, Teradata’s VP of product development for everything other than applications and database software. For example, he oversees Teradata’s hardware, storage, and switching technology. So when Teradata Chief Development Officer Scott Gnau didn’t have answers at his fingertips to some questions about SSDs (Solid-State Drives), he bucked me over to Carson. A very interesting discussion about SSDs (and other subjects) ensued.
Highlights included: Read more
| Categories: Data warehousing, Solid-state memory, Storage, Teradata | 1 Comment |
Teradata Virtual Storage
One of the big features of Teradata 13.0, announced this week (Edit: and to be shipped some time in 2009), is Teradata Virtual Storage, which sounds pretty cool. So far as I can tell, Teradata Virtual Storage has two major aspects, namely: Read more
| Categories: Data warehousing, Solid-state memory, Storage, Teradata | 2 Comments |
How will SSDs get incorporated into data warehousing?
SSDs (Solid-State Drives) have gotten a lot of recent attention as an eventual replacement for spinning disk. I haven’t researched expected timelines in detail, but George Crump offered a plausible scenario recently in a highly visible Information Week blog post. After the great recent (and still ongoing!) discussion in the SAN vs. DAS comment thread, I’d like to throw some questions out for discussion, including:
- Just how much faster than disk will SSDs be than disk for random reads?
- Will SSDs be faster or slow than disk for sequential reads, and by how much?
- What will the speed comparison be on SSDs between sequential and random reads?
- How many times will it be possible to write to an SSD? Will this be a problem?
- Will DBMS — which today invariably assume that storage is homogeneous — need to take account of storage heterogeneity?
- What are the implications of SSDs for database and DBMS architecture?
I commented on some of these issues a year ago. Now it’s your turn. 
| Categories: Data warehousing, Solid-state memory, Storage | 5 Comments |
Database management system architecture implications of an eventual move to solid-state memory
I’ve pointed out in the past that solid-state/Flash memory could be a good alternative to hard disks in PCs and enterprise systems alike. Well, when that happy day arrives, what will be some of the implications for database management software architecture?
- Compression will be even more important. Cost per terabyte of storage will spike up for that storage that is moved from disk to solid-state.
- The sequential-rather-than-random reading strategy of data warehouse appliance makers may become less relevant. The one way to get rid of the disk-speed bottleneck is to get rid of disks.
- DBMS will need to write data as rarely as possible. Solid-state memory tends to wear out if you keep writing over it. Assuming this problem gets better over time (if it doesn’t, this whole discussion is moot) but isn’t totally solved, architectures which have fewer writes are on the whole better.
| Categories: Data warehouse appliances, Data warehousing, Database compression, Netezza, Solid-state memory, Theory and architecture | Leave a Comment |
Solid state (Flash) memory vs. RAM vs. disks
I just wrote a column and a blog post on the potential for diskless PCs based on flash drives. It was a fun exercise, and I think I kept it general enough that my lack of knowledge about hardware technology details didn’t lead me into significant error.
The first vendor response I got was from Bit Micro Networks, who seem to sell such drives for PCs and enterprise storage alike. One of their press releases touts an Oracle implementation. Interesting idea. It’s far from a substitute for full memory-centric data management, but it’s kind of an intermediate way of getting some of the benefits without altering your traditional software setup much at all.
| Categories: Memory-centric data management, Oracle, Solid-state memory | 1 Comment |
