Christopher Winslett
Christopher Winslett
TL;DR : keep your data-layer simple, you'll need the agility it offers when budgets get stretched. Over the past 12 years of helping people run databases for their businesses, I have discovered that there are only 2 financial phases in the lifecycle of a database: • Phase 1 : Absolute costs are low, thus marginal costs do not matter. • Phase 2 : Absolute costs are high, thus marginal costs are all that matter. Phase 1 : Absolute costs are low, thus marginal costs do not matter. Phase 2 : Absolut...
Read MoreChristopher Winslett
Christopher Winslett
Have you traced a sql statement back to the source application? Of course you have! Was it time consuming? Probably! SQL queries can hide in plain sight. If you've read through any of Crunchy's advice on query performance or healthy databases you know there's a goldmine of optimization waiting for you in your database. When using an ORM, the queries are obfuscated, and tracing a specific query to the application code can be challenging. Using Ruby as an example below (BTW, I <3 Ruby; I will...
Read MoreChristopher Winslett
Christopher Winslett
For many developers, databases are basically magic. Like Penn & Teller, this blog post is set to break the illusion. Databases are just like any other code, they have algorithms and processes. These algorithms and processes are meant to improve performance, but can cause limitations if they are not expected. Disclaimer : it is okay to break the rules. Sometimes, you may choose to have slow database interactions, because you know they are rare events. Assuming a well-designed database infrastru...
Read More