Tag: distributed-computing
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Turbocharge Your SQL: PostgreSQL Query Tuning Made Easy (and a Little Fun!)
Efficient query performance is the backbone of any database-driven application. As data volume grows and queries become more complex, poorly optimized SQL can lead to significant performance bottlenecks, slowing down applications, increasing hardware costs, and causing user dissatisfaction. Query tuning ensures that your database delivers results quickly and efficiently, maintaining the performance and scalability of…
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Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCDs): What Are They and Why Do They Matter?
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay Imagine you’re keeping a diary about your favourite ice cream shop. One day, they introduce a new flavour. The next week, they rename the “Choco Fudge” to “Double Chocolate Delight.” Later, they move to a bigger location. How do you keep track of all these changes in your diary?…
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Database Partitioning and Sharding: A Data Engineer’s Perspective
As a data engineer, one of the most common challenges I’ve faced is managing the growing volumes of data that modern applications generate. When a single database struggles to handle all that data, performance suffers, queries slow down, and scaling becomes a nightmare. That’s when techniques like partitioning and sharding come to the rescue. Image…
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Apache Kafka: The Storyteller of the Digital World
Imagine a bustling playground. Some kids are chatting about the latest game they played, others are showing off their toys, and a few are just listening quietly, soaking it all in. Now, picture a magical friend in this playground who listens to every conversation, remembers everything, and can retell those stories to anyone, anytime. That’s…
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The 2-Phase Commit Protocol: How to Get Everyone on Board Without Losing Your Sanity
Picture this: You’re planning a road trip with your friends. You’ve got the destination in mind, but everyone needs to agree on a few critical decisions—like which snacks to bring, who’s in charge of the playlist, and most importantly, who’s driving. You can’t hit the road until everyone is on the same page. This, my…
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Race Against Time: Tackling Race Conditions in Distributed Computing
In the realm of distributed computing, where multiple processes run concurrently across different machines, maintaining data consistency and avoiding conflicts become paramount. One of the critical issues that can arise in this context is a race condition. Understanding race conditions and knowing how to prevent them is essential for anyone working with distributed systems. What…