towards an Elastic and Autonomic Multitenant Database
The success of cloud computing as a platform for deploying webapplications has led to a deluge of applications characterized by small data footprints with unpredictable access patterns. A scalable multitenant database management system (DBMS) is therefore an important component of the software stack for platforms supporting these applications. Elastic load balancing and efficient database migration techniques are key requirements for effective resource utilization and operational cost minimization. Our vision is a DBMS where multitenancy is viewed as virtualization in the database layer, and elasticity is a first class notion with the same stature as scalability, availability etc. We analyze the various models of database multitenancy, formalize the forms of migration, and identify the design space and research goals for an autonomic and elastic multitenant database.
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One thing I would point out as well, is that with PAAS the applications in prialacctity need to understand that the environment is virtual. Some attempts to write to IO for instance may require a lot more error checking and retry logic to ensure items are written to a storage layer properly. The problems are more geared toward an AWS type environment than something like Sales Force. The more distant you are from the actual hardware, the more you need to put in failsafes and understand the impact of how to prevent or ensure data replication, most of the time through duplication across instances or storage mechanisms.Been dealing with a bit of that lately so its pretty fresh. 🙂