CockroachDB: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 1. Introduction to CockroachDB

CockroachDB is a distributed, transactional, relational, cloud native SQL database system. That’s quite a mouthful! But in short, CockroachDB leverages both the strengths of the previous generation of relational database systems—strong consistency, the power of SQL, and the relational data model—and the strengths of modern distributed cloud principles. The result is a database system that is broadly compatible with other SQL-based transactional databases but delivers much greater scalability and availability.

In this chapter, we’ll review the history of database management systems (DBMSs) and discover how CockroachDB exploits technology advances of the last few decades to deliver on its ambitious goals.

A Brief History of Databases

Data storage and data processing are the “killer apps” of human civilization. Verbal language gave us an enormous advantage in cooperating as a community. Still, it was only when we developed data storage—e.g., written language—that each generation could build on the lessons of preceding generations.

The earliest written records—dating back almost 10,000 years—are agricultural accounting records. These cuneiform records, recorded on clay tablets (Figure 1-1), serve the same purpose as the databases that support modern accounting systems.

Information storage technologies over thousands of years progressed slowly. The use of cheap, portable, and reasonably durable paper media organized in libraries and cabinets ...