Toward a grid-based DBMS

The relational database management system (DBMS) community has been progressing toward using specialized grids. EMC/Acxiom's data grid architecture and MySQL Cluster's grid architecture couple the main memories of PCs with redundancy to implement persistence. In a data grid architecture at its base level is a grid abstract machine, which consists of a collection of typed nodes. The grid abstract machine provides redundant storage in case a node fails. It might also provide interfaces that group nodes into enclaves. This grouping could be based on attributes such as assignment, node type, size, capabilities, physical location, and who owns it. This departs from traditional database implementations, which were tuned to small numbers of processors and in which most algorithms for relational operators and most indices were tuned to disk-block transfers.