science

NewSQL

NewSQL is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand NewSQL rather than just read about it. In short: NewSQL is a class of relational database management systems that seek to provide the scalability of NoSQL systems for online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads while maintaining the ACID guarantees of a traditional database system. Many enterprise systems that handle high-profile data (e.g., financial and order processing systems) are too large for conventional relational databases, but have transactional and c…

Key takeaways

NewSQL belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect NewSQL to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NewSQL from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

NewSQL is a class of relational database management systems that seek to provide the scalability of NoSQL systems for online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads while maintaining the ACID guarantees of a traditional database system. Many enterprise systems that handle high-profile data (e.g., financial and order processing systems) are too large for conventional relational databases, but have transactional and consistency requirements that are not practical for NoSQL systems. The only options previously available for these organizations were to either purchase more powerful computers or to develop custom middleware that distributes requests over conventional DBMS. Both approaches feature high infrastructure costs and/or development costs. NewSQL systems attempt to reconcile the conflicts.

History The term was first used by 451 Group analyst Matthew Aslett in a 2011 research paper discussing the rise of a new generation of database management systems. One of the first NewSQL systems was the H-Store parallel database system.

Applications Typical applications are characterized by heavy OLTP transaction volumes. OLTP transactions;

are short-lived (i.e., no user stalls) touch small amounts of data per transaction use indexed lookups (no table scans) have a small number of forms (a small number of queries with different arguments). However, some support hybrid transactional/analytical processing (HTAP) applications. Such systems improve performance and scalability by omitting heavyweight recovery or concurrency control.

List of NewSQL-databases Apache Trafodion Clustrix CockroachDB Couchbase CrateDB Google Spanner MySQL Cluster NuoDB OceanBase Pivotal GemFire XD SequoiaDB SingleStore was formerly known as MemSQL. TIBCO Active Spaces TiDB TokuDB TransLattice Elastic Database VoltDB YDB YugabyteDB

Features The two common distinguishing features of NewSQL database solutions are that they support online scalability of NoSQL databases and the relational data model (including ACID consistency) using SQL as their primary interface. NewSQL systems can be loosely grouped into three categories:

New architectures NewSQL systems adopt various internal architectures. Some systems employ a cluster of shared-nothing nodes, in which each node manages a subset of the data. They include components such as distributed concurrency control, flow control, and distributed query processing.

SQL engines The second category are optimized storage engines for SQL. These systems provide the same programming interface as SQL, but scale better than built-in engines.

Transparent sharding These systems automatically split databases across multiple nodes using Raft or Paxos consensus algorithm.

See also Transaction processing Partition (database) Distributed Relational Database Architecture Distributed SQL

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NewSQL

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NewSQL claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to NewSQL before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about NewSQL ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of NewSQL

In research: NewSQL appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses NewSQL in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: NewSQL is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Data management, Database management systems, Distributed data stores, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NewSQL outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study NewSQL in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NewSQL means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain NewSQL out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NewSQL in simple terms?

Why does NewSQL matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study NewSQL?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on NewSQL.