The QuasarDB Technology
Low total cost of ownership
The combination of efficient storage, low CPU usage,
integration, and ease of use results in tremendous
savings for businesses. Deploying QuasarDB is cheaper
and faster than typical Big Data solutions:
› Data analysts use known tools such as Python
and SQL to interface with their data: no arcane,
proprietary language to learn and skills are
transferable.
› QuasarDB integrates ETL, distribution, storage,
analytics, orchestration, and connectivity in a
single package radically simplifying deployment
and administration, shortening projects time.
› Efficient storage means significantly reduced
storage costs.
› Speed means lower CPU usage, which directly
translates to lower hosting costs.
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QuasarDB is column oriented in
memory and in disk.
When storing tables there are two
ways or storing the data: per row
or per column. When reading data
in memory, processors prefetch the
data adjacent to it. Thus,
reading continuous data is faster
than reading scattered data.
Row oriented organization favors
operations that work on rows,
whereas column-oriented favors
operations that work on columns.
Let us consider a table with min
and max values per hour.
Computing the minimum value for
all hours is a column oriented,
whereas computing the spread for
a given hour is row oriented.
Timeseries columns are
significantly larger than the rows,
and, most operations
are column oriented, making
timeseries benefit greatly from
column oriented storage.
Finally, organizing data as columns
enables compression to be more
efficient as patterns are more likely
to appear within the same column
than within the same row.
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4. Technology deep dive
How does QuasarDB deliver these benefits? What sets
it apart from the competition? The answer is found in
the overwhelming amount innovation packaged into
the software.
Implementation
QuasarDB is written in modern C++ 17 with the most
critical parts handwritten in assembly. This delivers a
portable binary unconstrainted by a virtual machine or
complex dependencies. QuasarDB is available for
Intel-compatible and ARM architectures, both 32-bit
and 64-bit.
Zero-overhead architecture
As QuasarDB combines in a single binary the
orchestrator, the query engine, the aggregation
engine, and the persistence. Thus, it can use a
zero-copy architecture that prevents the efficiency
loss typically found in big data systems that combines
different software products. Data isn’t moved around:
it’s processed in place. For example, the memory
buffer from the network card can be written directly to
disk after sanity checks, removing overheads caused
by allocations and copies.
What does column-
oriented mean ?