Storage class memory and databases: Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Storage Class Memory (SCM) is emerging as a viable solution to lift DRAM's scalability limits, both in capacity and energy consumption. Indeed, SCM combines the economic characteristics, non-volatility, and density of traditional storage media with the low latency and byte-addressability of DRAM. In this paper we survey research works on how SCM can be leveraged in databases and explore different solutions ranging from using SCM as disk replacement, to single-level storage architectures, where SCM is used as universal memory (i.e., as memory and storage at the same time), together with the challenges that stem from these opportunities. Finally, we synthesize our findings into recommendations on how to exploit the full potential of SCM in next-generation database architectures.