Utilization of readily available resources for the design and development of an efficient, cost effective, license free data repository, capable of very large data volume

Abstract

The factors taken into consideration in the choice of a suitable database product can be overwhelming. Major relational database products provide about the same level of functionality. Although some products offer more features than others, they all provide the basic relational database management system (RDBMS) functions such as create, read, update and delete. Many small and medium size enterprises require only a large data volume capacity in addition to the basic database functionalities. Changing a database system for an establishment especially when the database is already an established one can be destabilizing. In the quest to avoid provider lock-in scenario, reduce the database management costs, have good control over the database, achieve simplicity of architecture, operation and system administration, many enterprise have resorted to open source database products.
This paper is aimed at utilizing readily available resources to design and develop an efficient, cost effective, license free and functional data repository, capable of very large data volume. The developed repository was a (homogenous) virtual repository that is an ensemble of independent identical database files organized into a grid. The needed control and manipulation requirements for the data repository were met by separately developed control algorithms. These algorithms make up the virtualized master data management layer. This data management layer feeds and manages the requests to the repository,
taking into consideration the peculiar structuring and organization of the repository. This developed repository can provide medium and small establishments a low cost yet functional alternative to the costly larger RDBMS