The term Big Data represents a gigantic amount of data from different sources.
The number of companies with Big Data are rising. So, there is much greater need for tools that can extract useful data from their massive pools of information.
Data query engines are one of the most valuable tools in this category.
In short, query engines allow companies to connect data from any source, any technology, or in any format and then query it with simple SQL commands.
In this module we will discuss the Data Query Engines, need, working, challenges involved and benefits.
WHAT IS A QUERY ENGINE?
A Query Engine is a piece of software that manipulate a database and executes queries for data in that database to provide answers for users.
Different SQL engine types support different SQL server database engine architectures, but in general the SQL engine is a component of the system that is used to create, read, update and delete (CRUD) data from a database.
SQL engines are architecture designs that offer unique capabilities for storing and querying data within a relational database system.
Its commonly referred as SQL database engine or a SQL query engine.
Why Use Query Engines?
Big Data organizations need a way to query, merge, and join data without interruption, but the challenge is the huge amount data from different sources and formats making it extremely difficult to analyse.
To process any information from these sources the data should be under single common format.
Query engines allow companies to connect data from different sources in different formats and different technologies and then query that data in the same way.
How Data Query Engines Work?
The SQL engine processes data in stages.
The first stage of SQL processing begins with the RDBMS parsing a SQL statement via a parse call, to get ready for execution. The statement is separated into a data structure that other routines can process, then there are three checks completed
· Syntax check
· Semantic check
· Shared pool check
The second step is query optimization. The RDBMS optimizes the query and chooses the best algorithms for searching and sifting through data. Finally, the RDBMS executes the SQL statement by running the query plan.
Challenges: -
® Installing a query engine can be challenging for some companies.
® Initially difficult to learn than with relational query engines.
® The configuration of clusters, driver nodes, and resource managers requires the specific technical expertise of data engineers.
® Requires a fair amount of training and experience to use most effectively.
® It can take a few months to master.
Distributed SQL Query Engine: -
A distributed SQL query engine is a software tool with an architecture that uses cluster computing, allowing users to query a variety of data from multiple data sources within a single query.
Distributed SQL queries are important because they can effectively deal with the complexity of various frameworks and technologies allowing data analysts to combine data, in multiple engines to perform complex analytics queries.
Benefits Of Query Engines: -
Organizations that own a large amount of data will benefit quickly by using query engines.
Query Engines facilitate to quickly and easily search their entire pool of data without the need for advanced technical knowledge.
Companies can analyse and report on their data within a short amount of time.