Database   Inverting  the   

What  is  RTDB?   RTDB  stands  for  Real  Time  Database.   It  is  a  very  unique  database  architecture  that   solves  a  long  standing  set  of  problems  in  a  unique   way.   RTDB  is  similar  to  exis?ng  databases  in  that  it   stores  data  and  provides  “queries”  to  view  the   data.   However,  with  RTDB,  your  queries  are  “live”.  You   will  see  the  changes  to  your  data  as  it  happens.   Immediately  and  Con?nuously.   

Q.  Why  doesn’t  your  phone  have  a  “refresh”   buIon  and  when  you  push  it,  it  gives  you  your   new  text  messages?     A.  Because  my  phone  tells  me  when  I  have  a   message.  Automa?cally.  I  don’t  want  or  need  to   push  anything.   RTDB  works  the  same  way.  You  don’t  need  to   “refresh”  or  “rerun”  your  queries  to  get  the  latest   data.  The  changes  are  “pushed”  to  you.     An  Analogy   

Limitations  of  current  database  and  reporting   architectures:   Assembling  complex  repor?ng  takes  a  long  ?me   and  is  processing  intensive.   Business  users  have  grown  accustomed  to  “daily”   refreshes.  And  must  oMen  wait  for  a  day  to  see   business  cri?cal  analysis.   Standard  repor?ng  does  not  allow  for   “incremental”  updates.  If  you  want  new  #s,  you   must  rerun  the  report  in  it’s  en?rety.     

Why  so  limited?   Because  the  technology  used  to  assemble  reports   has  not  significantly  changed  since  the  days  of   green-­‐bar  printouts.     Prac?cally  speaking,  you  are  s?ll  geSng  green-­‐bar   on  your  screen.     There  seems  to  be  some  consensus  that  real-­‐?me   analy?cs  are  real  hard.  (and  real  expensive).   

What  if  we  extend  real-­‐time   technology  to  reporting?   We  “invert”  the  way  we  use  our   databases.     “Pull”  now  becomes  “push”.     

With  a  real-­‐time  database…   Analy?c  summaries  can  update  instantaneously  at   the  moment  each  element  of  new  data  arrives.   Ad-­‐hoc  repor?ng  can  be  blazing  fast  (incremental   map/reduce).   We  can  consolidate  approaches  and  integrate   repor?ng  directly  into  web  portals  and   applica?ons.   

Why  is  it  different?   RTDB  uses  map/reduce  technology,  not  SQL.     RTDB  doesn’t  rely  on  polling  for  updates.  When  the   data  changes,  subscribers  are  updated  immediately.     This  means  that  if  you  are  viewing  a  report,  chart,  or   dashboard  on  a  web  page,  it  changes  when  the  data   changes.       And  only  when  the  data  changes.   

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