>> pros and cons of storing billions of rows for real-time access in XML DB or in a traditional relational DB
Having re-read this part: XML was not meant for this. It is hard to find DBAs with skillset for managing relational databases with billions of rows, much less XML. The danger in choosing XML for this is you are on your own. There is not much precedent for using XML for this, whereas there is plenty of precedent, knowledge, skillset for doing it with relational databases.
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by: mrjoltcolaPosted on 2009-08-08 at 11:17:11ID: 25051117
>>The question I pose is: If all the data, 5 TB or so, are stored in a structured object XML DB configuration, will that exhibit a performance that is less then that of one using an XML translation interface that accesses a traditional relational storage schema?
If you are storing large XML documents, an XML DB can be beneficial in that it can index so XPATH queries can be used to efficiently retrieve / access / join nodes from XML documents.
Otherwise, unless you have a need for actively querying and cross-referencing content inside the document, then you will find there is not much standard skillset and tools to deal with XML DB vs Relational DB, and as well. a relational database, storing the XML content as a CLOB/BLOB or XML document will probably be more manageable and flexible. The relational model is well known, SQL is well-known, and the tuning options available to SQL engines far exceed your options in an XML engine.
Regardless of how much data you store, you need to determine how you access that data. A simple document retrieval system will be better served with an indexed filesystem or index relational table.
XML has value for storing documents, and if the DB has XML indexing capabilities, you may get by without using the relational model, but for a 5TB database, I would not choose the XML DB path.
>>Domain: Healthcare - Eligibility.
I've implemented the RxHub interface for 270/271 transactions, we use X.12 or XML across the service interface, but map it to a relational model, and did not have problems. Be careful not to let the format of the service interface (XML) drive your backend model, XML was original designed for interchange, but is inefficient for:
1) Storage
2) Parsing