Do We Still Need Database Design in the Era of Big Data?

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Published May 18, 2014   |   
Lockwood Lyon

Many big data application implementations seem to begin with an existing data warehouse, one or more new high-volume data streams, and some specialized hardware and software to support data storage and business analytics. The data storage issue is often accommodated by installing a proprietary hardware appliance that can store huge amounts of data while providing extremely fast data access.

In these cases, do we really need to worry about database design?

Most database administrators agree: good database design is part of system and application design. There are many business requirements, such as data availability, purge processing, and application performance that are addressed using specific database design options.

What about big data? Interestingly, vendors that supply hardware and software solutions for business analytics against big data claim that database design is less important. They argue that since the data is stored in their proprietary format, most database design considerations do not apply.

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