Overview

The challenge of database design, more than anything else, is the challenge of the interconnectedness of all things. The interdependence issues are in principle so central to database design that perhaps this book should have been titled Zen and the Art of Database or Buddhism for Databases. As if designing indexes, materialized views, partitioning, and other design qualities were not each individually complex enough, the nasty little secret is that these design problems are woefully and massively interconnected. The choice of a single index may remove the need for a materialized view or vice versa. Choice of partitioning can affect join efficiency so dramatically that index design may need a complete rethink. Multidimensional clustering (MDC) can obviate the need for B+ indexes. So we have a problem upon a problem: each of the design choices is exponentially complex pushing the limits of human designers to cope. When taken in combination, the possible combinations and considerations are so explosively large it appears far beyond the ability of mere mortals to manage.

In truth, tackled in a direct and comprehensive manner this is not a problem that human beings can grapple with, leading us to the possible conclusion that we...