Web Operations

Chapter 12. Relational Database Strategy and Tactics for the Web

Baron Schwartz

I HAVE STRONG OPINIONS ON THE TOPIC OF DATABASE ARCHITECTURE, greatly influenced by my experience as a database consultant. The most common questions I'm asked, broadly speaking, are rooted in how to design a good relational database architecture for some product or application. People bring this problem to me in all sorts of different ways: they need help with an application that's currently failing; they want to choose a database for a product they are developing; their website has no redundancy, and they are worried about the risk of downtime. The questions sound different, but they're not.

There are many variations on the theme. In casual conversations, mailing list threads, and Internet forums, the same question is often there, underneath the stated topic. Many websites are partially or fully devoted to web database architectures, directly or indirectly.^[26] Attendees rush to hear gurus from big Internet properties speak on database architectures at conferences. Anyone from a big Internet property is considered an authority, and sometimes even put on a pedestal, as though his experience with one application is the last word for every situation. (Please don't think that my experience is the last word, by the way.)

Why does the question, "How do you build a good Internet database architecture" command such attention? In my opinion, there are two reasons. One, most people have no real idea how to answer ...