Successful In-Memory Database Usage - A Structured Analysis

In-memory databases (IMDB) are a raising technology and have the potential to mark the end of computing performance bottlenecks. Our literature review did reveal that to date, no study analyzes the resulting benefits of IMDB usage and little is known about cause and effect of IMDB usage and its economic effects. This paper provides a structured analysis of experiences gained with IMDB usage. Surprisingly, our study showed that the promoted vision of IMDB as enabler for an integrated OLAP/OLTP infrastructure has not been put into practice yet. Currently, IMDB is mainly used for response time improvement in the field of analytical data processing. Furthermore, we observed that IMDB is predominantly used to improve existing business processes, instead of establishing new business models. The findings of our study may serve as basis for the development of hypotheses, validation and advancement of the theory of disruptive innovation and further empirical quantitative studies.