undefined | Better HN

0 pointsdventimi3y ago0 comments

Why would running code in a database process be intrinsically more expensive than running it in some other process?

0 comments

5 comments · 2 top-level

yunwal3y ago· 2 in thread

The issue is that many relational databases are not horizontally scalable, so you want to be frugal with their resources.

dventimiOP3y ago

The resources I'm familiar with are I/O, memory, and CPU. The only one I believe can be spared in the database by using that resource outside of the database, is CPU. When the database is far from saturated on CPU and latency and throughput are determined by I/O and memory, using CPU on some other machine that isn't the database can't possibly have any impact on latency and throughput.

yunwal3y ago

> When the database is far from saturated on CPU

The issue here is if you scale enough saturate the database, you'll have to rewrite essentially all your code if you're a typical CRUD webapp. Basically all of your business logic is about data retrieval. There's probably some companies that can get away with this, but it would be way too expensive for most.

1 more reply

riku_iki3y ago· 1 in thread

you can easily scale linearly your app layer on multiple machines, while it is harder with previous gen databases.

dventimiOP3y ago

What good is that going to do if the data always resides in the database?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

5 comments · 2 top-level

yunwal3y ago· 2 in thread

The issue is that many relational databases are not horizontally scalable, so you want to be frugal with their resources.

dventimiOP3y ago

The resources I'm familiar with are I/O, memory, and CPU. The only one I believe can be spared in the database by using that resource outside of the database, is CPU. When the database is far from saturated on CPU and latency and throughput are determined by I/O and memory, using CPU on some other machine that isn't the database can't possibly have any impact on latency and throughput.

yunwal3y ago

> When the database is far from saturated on CPU

The issue here is if you scale enough saturate the database, you'll have to rewrite essentially all your code if you're a typical CRUD webapp. Basically all of your business logic is about data retrieval. There's probably some companies that can get away with this, but it would be way too expensive for most.

1 more reply

riku_iki3y ago· 1 in thread

you can easily scale linearly your app layer on multiple machines, while it is harder with previous gen databases.

dventimiOP3y ago

What good is that going to do if the data always resides in the database?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse