Distributed Database Management Systems: Architectural Design Choices for the Cloud

Abstract

Cloud computing has changed the way we used to exploit software and systems. The two decades' practice of architecting solutions and services over the Internet has just revolved within the past few years. End users are now relying more on paying for what they use instead of purchasing a full-phase license. System owners are also in rapid hunt for business profits by deploying their services in the Cloud and thus maximising global outreach and minimising overall management costs. However, deploying and scaling Cloud applications regionally and globally are highly challenging. In this context, distributed data management systems in the Cloud promise rapid elasticity and horizontal scalability so that Cloud applications can sustain enormous growth in data volume, velocity, and value. Besides, distrib-uted data replication and rapid partitioning are the two fundamental hammers to nail down these challenges. While replication ensures database read scalability and geo-reachability, data partitioning favours database write scalability and system-level load balance. System architects and administrators often face difficulties in man-aging a multi-tenant distributed database system in Cloud scale as the underlying workload characteristics change frequently. In this chapter, the inherent challenges of such phenomena are discussed in detail alongside their historical backgrounds. Finally, potential way outs to overcome such architectural barriers are presented under the light of recent research and development in this area.