Overview

For a long time databases and network technologies evolved quite independently. The burst in the large-scale networked information systems led to a situation where these two areas can no longer be considered apart from one another without sustaining mutual losses. Much research effort was invested in integrating the network and database concepts. These findings uncovered important similarities in both areas, apparent in brief and expressive statements: “network is a storage system”, “network is a database index” and finally “network is a database.”  The structural homology has inspired research and development in new fields such as device and sensor databases, wireless dataspaces, light-weight distributed query processors, etc. However, there are fundamental differences in the network and database realms that are often underestimated by the researchers. When it comes to practical significance, the differences outstrip the similarities.

NADM Group elaborates on the discrepancies between network and database technologies and utilize them to address deficiencies that slow down the broad deployment of  integrated network-database solutions.   We investigate the strategies that properly fuse the network and database techniques for efficient information access in the distributed environments of next generation.

NADM Group tightly collaborates with the Advanced Data Management Technologies Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh.