Why Distributed Databases Are Becoming More Popular
We have been hearing about distributed databases for some time now, but what exactly does it mean? Also, why are these databases becoming so popular? Let’s take a look at these questions, as well as some of the real-world applications of distributed databases, to better understand what this technology can do and when you should consider using it in your own business.
What is a distributed database?
A distributed database is a type of database broken up into multiple parts and then stored on different servers. A distributed database does not have one centralized instance that stores all data, instead, it has many different databases/servers with each piece of data stored in different locations.
This design eliminates the need for large storage devices to store the entire database, which is expensive and difficult to maintain. This also means that if there was an outage at one location or server, only the data at this location would be inaccessible and only if it's not replicated using a database like CockroachDB will enhance your resilience over traditional RDMS technologies
The greatest advantage of using a distributed database is that it can scale as necessary because more nodes can be added as needed without any downtime.
How do they differ from relational databases?
The first difference is that a distributed database is designed to scale horizontally. This means that if you want more capacity and performance, you just add more nodes to the cluster. The second difference is that distributed databases are designed to be replicated across different data centres and geographic regions, so they are more fault-tolerant than a traditional database system.
There are also some similarities between distributed and relational databases, especially when it comes to how they interact with programming languages. All of them support Structured Query Language (SQL), which is a standard language that developers use to communicate with database systems.
When to Use a SQL database?
A SQL database is a powerful tool that enables businesses and developers to store, share and process data. The database can be used to store and retrieve data in various formats, including text, numbers, images and videos.
SQL databases are typically designed for structured data. Structured data is organised into tables with columns that have fixed types. Each column within the table has an explicit name and type which allows the database to know how each piece of data relates to one another.
SQL databases are often used for transactional applications that need high performance as well as advanced querying capabilities. SQL Databases are ideal where consistency and accuracy of data are important.
Benefits of using an RDBMS
RDBMSs are a reliable and efficient way to store and retrieve data. They provide the following benefits: reliability, scalability, high performance, excellent security features, and ease of use. What is the major difference between an RDBMS and a distributed database?
The main difference between an RDBMS and distributed database is that while both serve as storage databases, they operate in different ways. The former operates on one server, which can be accessed by many users at once. The latter operates on many servers connected to one another through networks improving scale and resilience over a traditional RDBMS
Hybrid Cloud Data Management
The rise of the cloud has ushered in a new era in data management. With businesses relying on their cloud providers to store, process, and analyse all their data, hybrid cloud is quickly becoming a necessity. The best way to understand what hybrid cloud means for your business is to consider its three key elements: on-premises capacity, public clouds as a service, and private clouds as a service.
All three are very different services but provide distinct advantages.
On-premises capacity refers to organisations who have chosen to invest in their own servers that they own and operate themselves.
Public cloud computing refers to using services from a third party such as AWS or Azure where organisations only pay for the time they use those services rather than investing in their own hardware upfront.
Private clouds refer to an organisation’s internal infrastructure that can be used exclusively by them but is still connected with other resources over the internet like any other cloud provider.
CockroachDB is a distributed database that can help you with all of these deployment scenarios
Distributed SQL: Use Cases
Distributed SQL databases like CockroachDB are becoming more popular for a few reasons. For one, these databases are much more resilient to system failures than traditional relational databases. This is because there is no single point of failure - if one node goes down, the database can still be served by other nodes in the cluster. These types of databases also use less resources and require fewer servers to run, so they're easier on the environment and cost less to maintain. Distributed SQL databases also support horizontal scaling through sharding which is useful for very large datasets that need to be distributed across multiple machines for processing.
Data collection and processing is an incredibly important part of any business, but most enterprises tend to rely on traditional relational databases. Because these databases are closed systems that run within a single data centre, they’re at risk for system-wide failure if a disaster occurs. Today, there’s no solution for enterprise data storage that offers reliability and scalability without sacrificing performance or control of your data. Fortunately, cloud-native architectures have changed all that. With solutions like CockroachDB—an open-source distributed SQL database—enterprises can get more out of their applications and spend less time worrying about risk when running large applications in production.