That is very a interesting read. Very. -Cameron
On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 8:39 AM, Jerry Barnes <critic...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Facebook trapped in MySQL fate worse than death > > Excerpts: > > According to database pioneer Michael Stonebraker, Facebook is operating a > huge, complex MySQL implementation equivalent to a fate worse than death, > and the only way out is bite the bullet and rewrite everything. > > Not that its necessarily Facebooks fault, though. Stonebraker says the > social networks predicament is all too common among web startups that start > small and grow to epic proportions. > > ... > > During an interview this week, Stonebraker explained to me that Facebook has > split its MySQL database into 4,000 > shards<http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2009/08/06/why-you-dont-want-to-shard/>in > order to handle the sites massive data volume, and is running 9,000 > instances of memcached in order to keep up with the number of transactions > the database must serve. > > ... > > The widely accepted problem with MySQL is that it wasnt built for webscale > applications or those that must handle excessive transaction volumes. > Stonebraker said the problem with MySQL and other SQL databases is that they > consume too many resources for overhead tasks (e.g., maintaining ACID > compliance <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACID> and handling multithreading) > and relatively few on actually finding and serving data. This might be fine > for a small application with a small data set, but it quickly becomes too > much to handle as data and transaction volumes grow. > > ... > > In Stonebrakers opinion, old SQL (as he calls it) is good for nothing and > needs to be sent to the home for retired software. After all, he > explained, SQL was created decades ago before the web, mobile devices and > sensors forever changed how and how often databases are accessed. > > But products such as MySQL are also open-source and free, and SQL skills > arent hard to come by. This means, Stonebraker says, that when web startups > decide they need to build a product in a hurry, MySQL is natural choice. But > then they hit that hockey-stick-like growth rate like Facebook did, and they > dont really have the time to re-engineer the service from the database up. > Instead, he said, they end up applying Band-Aid fixes that solve problems as > they occur, but that never really fix the underlying problem of an > inadequate data-management strategy. > > ... > > There have been various attempts to overcome SQLs performance and > scalability problems, including the buzzworthy NoSQL movement that burst > onto the scene a couple of years ago. However, it was quickly discovered > that while NoSQL might be faster and scale better, it did so at the expense > of ACID consistency.As I explained in a post earlier this year about > Citrusleaf, a NoSQL provider claiming to maintain ACID properties: > > ACID is an acronym for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability a > relatively complicated way of saying transactions are performed reliably and > accurately, which can be very important in situations like e-commerce, where > every transaction relies on the accuracy of the data set. > > Stonebraker thinks sacrificing ACID is a terrible idea, and, he noted, > NoSQL databases end up only being marginally faster because they require > writing certain consistency and other functions into the applications > business logic. > > ... > > But Stonebraker an entrepreneur as much as a computer scientist has an > answer for the shortcoming of both old SQL and NoSQL. Its called NewSQL > (a term coined by 451 Group analyst Matthew Aslett) or scalable SQL, as Ive > referred to it in the past. Pushed by companies such as Xeround, Clustrix, > NimbusDB, GenieDB and Stonebrakers own VoltDB, NewSQL products maintain > ACID properties while eliminating most of the other functions that slow > legacy SQL performance. VoltDB, an online-transaction processing (OLTP) > database, utilizes a number of methods to improve speed, including by > running entirely in-memory instead of on disk. > > > Interesting. > > > Read more here: > http://gigaom.com/cloud/facebook-trapped-in-mysql-fate-worse-than-death/ > > J > > - > > Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. - > Henry Kissinger > > Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go > out and buy so > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:340061 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
