Columnar database and its various aspects

It is undeniable that for achieving an efficient I/O, you should preferably use a columnar database as an alternate is unlikely to deliver the same results. However, there’s more to this database including the fact that if you need help with big data management, then it may come across as the most obvious option and a reliable one too. In fact, if it wasn’t for its reliability, industries like retail and those dealing in financial services won’t have openly embraced and acknowledged this database. Moreover, the fact that this database often finds place in library card catalogs as well as inquiry systems is indicative of its growing popularity.

Reasons for using columnar database

If you need help with advanced or exploratory analytics, a row-based database can easily serve the purpose, but when it comes to canned business reports and the like, nothing may be as good as a column-oriented database. However, this is not the only reason for which you should use this database; in fact, it is likely to come in even handier when business analytics and fraud detection are involved. Moreover, with the aid of this database, things can be simplified at least as far as computations are concerned. Therefore, the next time you face some difficulty in computing sales for the previous quarter, you know what to use.

Role played in business analytics

Analytics may suffer a huge blow if you fail to make the necessary arrangements for storing the data in a proper manner; you have no option but to choose a database for storage in order to ensure that data can be used for gaining insights. And, with its characteristic of minimizing the DBA effort, the column-oriented database can be your ideal solution. Moreover, not only will you be able to do analysis with exemplary ease, but you can also prepare the requisite reports without any difficulty.

Some additional benefits

For whatsoever reason, if you use any of the compression techniques, you are likely to achieve more effective results with this database than what you’d have achieved with a row-oriented database. So, from now on, whenever you need to implement Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) and other techniques of this type, you should preferably go with the column-oriented database. Moreover, if you want to save disk space, this storage technique can help you in doing the needful as less space is likely to be used. Last but not least, if you believe that the time taken to return a query is relatively high, then you must switch before it’s too late.