People have been hooked on to social media for over a decade now. From Orkut to Instagram, it has been a long journey. We have always weighed social media based on user experience and looks. Little to the regular users of Facebook or BoredPanda ever stop and think about the database infrastructure that powers these media platforms. Even the basic UX depends on the ability of the databases to support several extensions as well as plug-ins. The evolution of social media has only been possible due to the extensive modification and modernizations of their existing databases.
Facebook started out with a sort of basic PHP powered database. Right now, their infrastructure is barely recognizable. They have created their versions of everything, including the programming language that powers their DB and the query language they use on a daily basis to complete simple maintenance tasks. In fact, experts believe that Facebook’s database is one of the ideal examples of DB that has lived through the ages and changed as per user requirement. Therefore, it is the benchmark for other social media platforms.
The tasks of a social media DB are innumerable and highly varied. Primarily, here are the few tasks they should be able to back
Even with the multiple database options, businesses often find it difficult to decide on a DB that serves all their purposes. A powerful database can decide the fate of a social media platform and social networking service.
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The primary service of a database is to collect, organize and maintain user data from the social media platform interactions. With the advent of big data, the collected user data can always help social media sites progress towards progressive analytics. A strong database structure is also very essential for supporting the addition of new data, deletion of old and corrupt data, and the editing of stored data shortly.
While choosing a database structure for your social media site, do not skimp on the design. A poor structure often cannot support the exponential growth of data. Scalability is crucial for any social media platform since after the network or service takes off, you will experience explosive growth in data volume and velocity on a regular basis.
While designing a database, programmers should never wait until the last phase to involve a database administrator. A DBA can the help programming team develop a sound, flexible and customizable structure that provides data security and backup. You can check out remotedba.com to understand the services a remote DBA can offer to help you construct the perfect DB for your social media platform.
Many businesses, including several social media sites, use their databases as a primary data dump. They hope to sort the data out later when they have to face analytics tasks. However, this “later” is often too late and a potential data lake turns into a data swamp for no reason. This is usually common among DBs that do not provide ease of access. Your DB design needs to provide efficiency to your site and power your customer data management. Great design also ensures better data visibility and security. Often, a smart social media company will store their high performing design elements on databases and use them later to redesign their UI.
Programmers, site owners, and DBAs need to account for the evolution of the application or the website shortly. We are not just talking about the expansion of the customer base; we are also talking about adapting to future trends. Therefore, your database needs to support partitioning. This will ensure a smooth transition. This will ensure a smoother transition and up-gradation shortly.
An excellent database with the power to store big data is the key towards machine learning, AI, and big data analytics. Several social media owners do not account for these possibilities since they do not have the budget to integrate big data services at the moment. However, with the pace the world is progressing towards predictive data analytics and big data usage, it will soon become elementary to make room for both within your database. So, when deciding on a programmer, always pick someone with the experience of designing a database with big data service compatibilities.
A good imagination can power more than arts. Your programmer must have a good imagination to create a DB for your social media site that supports new data interaction strategies. Choosing multiple database layers can often complicate the entire process. You can use additional data interactions that can make it much easier to summarize the access to several fields and data lakes. Your ideal programmer should be able to shorten the process by creating a standard set of codes especially applicable to your website database.
Several social media websites and networking services have come and gone over the last decade. A number of them have faced failure due to the lack of a proper database design that could sustain their growth. In fact, a huge percentage of social media services face similar challenges even today due to the lack of optimized data models. The lack of an optimized database and the absence of an experienced DBA can be deleterious for any website. Social media platforms especially feel the lack since most of their operations depend on daily updates of user data.