Re: Distributed Vs. Centralized Database Approach

coldfusion wrote:

>Hi,
>I am trying to make a reccomendation for our database arch. We are
>currently debating on using a centralized database on one machine
>possibly having multiple instances or to use a distributed model have
>multiple servers and instances.
>
>Background:
>the application is a global application with a couple of hundred
>users. In the past couple of months the database grew to about 70,000
>records. Going forward as we add more modules to the application we
>want to try and figure out a strategy so that we can scale, and
>minimize performace problems down the road.
>Any opinions or ideas?
>Thanks
>
>

Unless you accidentally posted to Oracle and are really working in MS Access (or dBASE II)
70,000 records barely qualifies for building an index. I wouldn't sweat a database with
70,000,000 records much less a single table with 70,000,000 records.

What you need is one database with one instance. And if you do anything else it should be
a separate database, separate instance, on a separate machine involving some strategy for
replication for data security.

Just so you know ... I routinely build tables with 50,000 - 100,000 records on my personal
notebook computer just to run demos in class for my students. When you get into the billions
or trillions ... then start thinking about splitting things up ... but into partitions ... not separate
databases.

-- 
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/oad/oad_crs.asp
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/aoa/aoa_crs.asp
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
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