Introduction to columnar databases with ClickHouse
Columnar databases represent a significant shift in database technology, optimizing for speed and efficiency in data analytics and read-heavy operations. Unlike traditional row-oriented databases, columnar databases store data by column rather than by row, providing substantial performance advantages for querying large datasets. Among the leading columnar databases is ClickHouse, an open source, high-performance columnar database management system designed for OLAP.
What is ClickHouse?
ClickHouse was initially developed by Yandex to manage and analyze web analytics data. It excels in real-time query execution and can generate analytical data reports in milliseconds, even across billions of rows and terabytes of data. The ClickHouse architecture is shown in the following diagram:
Figure 8.9 – Architecture diagram
ClickHouse is a genuine column-oriented database management system. In this system...