Analytics

Title and Author of Paper BlinkDB: Queries with Bounded Errors and Bounded Response Times on Very Large Data. Agarwal et al. Summary BlinkDB is a massively parallel database that provides approximate results for queries over large data sets. BlinkDB’s distinguishing feature is providing the opportunity for users to trade response time for query accuracy — partial results are returned with annotated error bars describing their accuracy at the current point in time. ...

Title and Author of Paper Informix under CONTROL: Online Query Processing. J. M. Hellerstein et al. Summary The CONTROL project attempts to improve the interaction between users and computers during data analysis. Traditional data analysis systems are a black box where a user enters a query, and waits for some amount of time before receiving a result. The CONTROL project aims to make this process interactive by continuously providing approximate results that are improved over time. Implementing such a system requires rethinking some fundamental tenants of database systems. First, with interactive systems queries may never complete, but instead they may be halted when results are “good enough”. Second, interactive systems must be able to provide approximate results quickly while maximizing the rate at which an accurate answer is found. This paper explores the changes in database technology needed to support interactive use cases. ...