Databases: Fundamental Questions

Database Week is the fourth theme of Software Engineering Daily.

A database is an organized collection of data.[1] It is the collection of schemes, tables, queries, reports, views and other objects.

Some modern databases are doing much more than this. As applications grow to have new types of responsibilities, common patterns and functionality are being folded into the database layer.

Other new databases adhere to the classic description, and provide the classic, desired functionality of data storage and access. These databases might provide abstraction from the distributed system, or deliver performance that keeps up with the high data velocity.

From August 17-23, interviews with RethinkDB, MemSQL, PipelineDB, and others will be featured.

Fundamental questions:

  • What is a database?
  • Why is functionality moving from the application to the database?
  • What are the database types desired by forward-thinking platforms like Meteor?
  • Do we need new databases to support the growth of data science?
  • Is onboarding or migrating to a new database always something scary that has a risk of large technical debt?
  • How does the movement from batch to streaming affect database architecture?
  • Are databases only ever written in highly performant languages like Rust, Go, and C++?
  • What are the biggest database pain points for high throughput, data driven application developers?
  • What are the biggest database pain points for middle- and front-end web developers?

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