Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
XML Databases
Examples:
Exist, Oracle, MarkLogic
Typical applications:
Publishing
Strengths:
Mature search technologies, Schema validation
Weaknesses:
No real binary solution, easier to re-write documents than update them
Example application:
A logistics company that uses bespoke XML formats to
manage the invoices, customer order fulfillment directives, shipping commitments
associated with the orders and packaging and handling instructions for each order. The
company manager needs to quickly search either text or semantic sections of the markup
(e.g., orders whose summary contains fragile, where the shipping commitment is four
business days and customers belonging to a particular zip code area). This application
extensively uses text-based search techniques.
Distributed Peer Stores
Examples:
Cassandra, HBase, Riak
Typical applications:
Distributed file systems
Strengths:
Fast lookups, good distributed storage of data
Weaknesses:
Very low-level API
Example application: A plant maintenance application that takes into account
the plant machineries generating logs, where each machine's log needs to be captured
separately
. All these log files are processed in a batch mode every four hours to identify
any specific anomalies in machine's readings, and a list of alerts gets generated for a
machine that has higher-than-normal thresholds. The plant's machines are in remote
places and spread a wide area.
What Database System Should Your Application Use?
The key point is to determine what the objective of your application is. Table
6-1
shows
some of the basic guidelines in determining what use cases need what kind of database
solutions.
