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Mixing It Up… Database Platform Style
It seems that there are some interesting trends developing working with information in our various companies in the community. The trend that surprises me the most is that there are so many companies opting to mix platforms with an eye toward optimizing for database size, use of the information and platform costs. This last one, the costs, seems to be getting a lot of attention as people move to more unstructured type approaches to working with information. I think this comes from the various platform-specific approaches to querying the stored data. Some are better at totally unstructured, some are better at fully-defined schemas, etc. Add to that the flexibility of often-less-expensive licensing that allows for experimentation and you get a lot of people building out (or at least considering building out) mixed-platform environments.
From a "data-guy" perspective, it’s challenging. From a "DBA" perspective, it’s a bit intimidating. From a "I really want to be flexible to get information for my users" perspective, I think it’s interesting. From a security perspective, it’s downright scary. 🙂
If you’re considering this, you’ll need to provide for, and understand, security across the platforms. This means access controls and security on the data at rest. Be sure to consider both.
Lastly, recovery. While you may find that you have a master copy of the data in your primary platform, you’ll have to figure out if you’ll be making the secondary systems fully recoverable too, or whether you’d be rebuilding from the "master" system. Either way, you’ll need to make sure you have a solid (and tested!) plan for rebuilding/recovery.
Are you considering or supporting this type of environment? Have you had any surprises (good or bad) as you’ve rolled it out? We’ve had some really excellent experiences reported, and I think there are some really compelling things that are being done. What do you think?
Drop me a note, let me know…email me here.
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