Chapter 8. Distributed Databases Are Easy, Just Read the Fine Print

8. Distributed Databases Are Easy, Just Read the Fine Print

Distributed databases are probably the most consistently misunderstood technology component in the world. I hear the strangest things on a regular basis. Business folks say, "I need my data in more than one place; replicate it," or "We pay for two databases; I want to use both of them." Techies constantly explain that either there are no solutions to the problem or the problem is very hard, or they say "That's easy, just use MySQL."

This chapter discusses distributed databases and helps you understand why these one-sentence, context-absent technical explanations make nontechnical decision-makers confused and irateand rightfully so.