Next generation JDBC database drivers for performance, transparent caching, load balancing, and scale-out

Abstract

Despite having a significant impact on overall data system performance, database drivers connecting the application to the database system have not innovated at the same pace as the database systems themselves. This work describes a database driver designed for the requirements of cloud-based systems requiring flexibility, high availability, scaling, and performance. The unique contribution is a rule-based query routing system that supports real-time configurations and optimizations without requiring any changes to the application code or database system. With the increasing migration of applications and databases to the cloud as well as different database technologies such as NoSQL systems, this flexibility allows application owners to optimize and migrate legacy applications to exploit the advantages of new database technologies. Experimental results demonstrate how queries cached by the driver can improve query response times by an order of magnitude and reduce the overall load on the database system by up to 50+.