Organizing and Accessing Data in SanssouciDB

Providing enterprise users with information they require, when they require it is not just a question of using the latest technology to store information in an efficient manner. Enterprise application developers and users need ways of accessing and storing their information that are suited to the tasks they wish to carry out. This includes things like making sure the most relevant data is always stored close to the CPU, while data that is no longer required for the day-to-day running of the business is stored in slower, cheaper storage; allowing new columns to be added to tables if customers need to customize an application, and allowing developers to choose the most efficient storage strategy for their particular task. The work of an application developer can also be made easier if they are able to read and write data in a way that fits in with the business process they are modeling. Finally, users and developers also need to have confidence that their database will be available when they need it, and that they will not lose their data if the power goes out or a hardware component fails. In this chapter we describe how data is accessed and organized in SanssouciDB, to meet the requirements we have outlined.