Healthy databases grow over time. To be considered healthy a database must maintain current, relevant data targeted at the databases’ subject. Growth may occur in two separate but distinct areas which are scalability and/or extensibility.
Scalability is defined as a system’s ability to accommodate growth in capacity. This type of growth may come in several forms. Organic growth is growth related to day to day operations. New customers come into the system in a stable progressive manner. Over time the system outgrows its existing platform configuration. A more volatile growth method involves the bulk loading of new data. A good example is an acquisition of another company. The database will experience exponential grown that is unexpected. In either case, scalability may generally be characterized as additional capacity to deliver existing system products. This method of growth will be a focus of IT support staff but may not be apparent to end users.
Extensibility is defined as growth based on new feature or function set. Growth of this nature is not necessarily the addition of new clients but what new data may be presented on existing clients. A trending example of extensibility is the inclusion of document management into existing database systems instead of a stand-alone document management system. This type of growth adds to or augments existing system functionality. As the growth occurs IT staff and end users will be aware of system changes.
The ideal system will be designed in a way to accommodate both types of growth. A good friend of mine would say, “We need to do this with malice and forethought.” His point is that if we design with scalability and extensibility in mind, in the beginning, we’ll have a system that readily accommodates growth.
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