The reason Facebook using MySQL for Timeline Features

Facebook-Timeline

Wired reports that Piantino Serkan, who will be responsible for engineering offices in New Yok Facebook, argued that the reason of Facebook to choose MySQL is as a solution to deal with the memory requirements of the Timeline feature because it basically works in a different way of news feeds.

Because the Timeline feature is more focused on organizing the data neatly than continually issuing updates in real time, then MySQL is the best choice for applications of this Timeline. Although the data collected in the same location as the data is stored (not through a network connection), the data will still be set by using MySQL instead of other alternatives such as NoSQL or Hadoop HBase.

Fiantino was explained to Wired: “Many people are surprised that for the latest features of Facebook was found to have used MySQL. We treat MySQL as a generic engine for data manipulation. We use it as a storage engine and was very efficient. “

Although Piantino considers the use of MySQL as an option, such use could have been because of the need. Facebook allegedly relied heavily on MySQL, which was considered ideal for a small system for MySQL is an open source and free software. Is perfect for an ambitious Harvard student who started a social network inside his dorm room. Sound very familiar?

But anyway, MySQL should not be an option for a large company with 800 million digital users for their database platform solutions. Derrick Harris wrote an article describing the possibility of experts of big problems for the decision up in the use of MySQL, while databases expert Michael Stonebreaker even called up this decision as ‘worse than death’.

Facebook currently continues to work to improve the implementation of MySQL and create a special page for this issue. This page was apparently quite active and a lot of responses, the members on this page were as many as 74,000. How do you think about this use of MySQL? A clever solution or a time bomb?