Readings in Database Systems, 5th Edition (2015)
Preface
In the ten years since the previous edition of Read-
ings in Database Systems, the field of data management
has exploded. Database and data-intensive systems to-
day operate over unprecedented volumes of data, fueled
in large part by the rise of “Big Data” and massive de-
creases in the cost of storage and computation. Cloud
computing and microarchitectural trends have made dis-
tribution and parallelism nearly ubiquitous concerns.
Data is collected from an increasing variety of hetero-
geneous formats and sources in increasing volume, and
utilized for an ever increasing range of tasks. As a re-
sult, commodity database systems have evolved consid-
erably along several dimensions, from the use of new
storage media and processor designs, up through query
processing architectures, programming interfaces, and
emerging application requirements in both transaction
processing and analytics. It is an exciting time, with
considerable churn in the marketplace and many new
ideas from research.
In this time of rapid change, our update to the tradi-
tional “Red Book” is intended to provide both a ground-
ing in the core concepts of the field as well as a commen-
tary on selected trends. Some new technologies bear
striking resemblance to predecessors of decades past,
and we think it’s useful for our readers to be familiar
with the primary sources. At the same time, technology
trends are necessitating a re-evaluation of almost all di-
mensions of database systems, and many classic designs
are in need of revision. Our goal in this collection is
to surface important long-term lessons and foundational
designs, and highlight the new ideas we believe are most
novel and relevant.
Accordingly, we have chosen a mix of classic, tradi-
tional papers from the early database literature as well as
papers that have been most influential in recent develop-
ments, including transaction processing, query process-
ing, advanced analytics, Web data, and language design.
Along with each chapter, we have included a short com-
mentary introducing the papers and describing why we
selected each. Each commentary is authored by one of
the editors, but all editors provided input; we hope the
commentaries do not lack for opinion.
When selecting readings, we sought topics and pa-
pers that met a core set of criteria. First, each selec-
tion represents a major trend in data management, as
evidenced by both research interest and market demand.
Second, each selection is canonical or near-canonical;
we sought the most representative paper for each topic.
Third, each selection is a primary source. There are
good surveys on many of the topics in this collection,
which we reference in commentaries. However, read-
ing primary sources provides historical context, gives
the reader exposure to the thinking that shaped influen-
tial solutions, and helps ensure that our readers are well-
grounded in the field. Finally, this collection represents
our current tastes about what is “most important”; we
expect our readers to view this collection with a critical
eye.
One major departure from previous editions of the
Red Book is the way we have treated the final two sec-
tions on Analytics and Data Integration. It’s clear in
both research and the marketplace that these are two of
the biggest problems in data management today. They
are also quickly-evolving topics in both research and in
practice. Given this state of flux, we found that we had
a hard time agreeing on “canonical” readings for these
topics. Under the circumstances, we decided to omit of-
ficial readings but instead offer commentary. This obvi-
ously results in a highly biased view of what’s happen-
ing in the field. So we do not recommend these sections
as the kind of “required reading” that the Red Book has
traditionally tried to offer. Instead, we are treating these
as optional end-matter: “Biased Views on Moving Tar-
gets”. Readers are cautioned to take these two sections
with a grain of salt (even larger that the one used for the
rest of the book.)
We are releasing this edition of the Red Book free
of charge, with a permissive license on our text that al-
lows unlimited non-commercial re-distribution, in mul-
tiple formats. Rather than secure rights to the rec-
ommended papers, we have simply provided links to
Google Scholar searches that should help the reader lo-
cate the relevant papers. We expect this electronic for-
mat to allow more frequent editions of the “book.” We
plan to evolve the collection as appropriate.
A final note: this collection has been alive since
1988, and we expect it to have a long future life. Ac-
cordingly, we have added a modicum of “young blood”
to the gray beard editors. As appropriate, the editors of
this collection may further evolve over time.
Peter Bailis
Joseph M. Hellerstein
Michael Stonebraker
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