Associative Database Queries Enabled by Value-Based Storage

Associative queries allow you to find correlations in your data based on simply a value that you know. The value-based storage (VBS) model used by iLuminate lets you ask about a value and returns anything in the database that contains the value. By searching only the value pool, the iLuminate data management engine executes associative queries extremely fast, usually in less than one second. It may be customers or products, names or descriptions. An associative query can look at the entire database, or you can select a single column or table to search. There is no need for knowledge of the structure of the database, and there is no SQL code to write. Associative queries are ideal for situations wherein only partial information is known or wherein everything related to a specific value is desired.

For example, imagine a situation in which a problem occurred one day and was not discovered until later. What happened and what was affected? An associative query searching only for that date will find every record of every type in the database that contains that date. Analysis can then proceed using the incremental query process.

In a customer service scenario, imagine how helpful it would be to have immediate access to every recorded contact between the customer and the business. An associative query using the customer's name or ID would provide that information.

With a relational database, there is no reasonable indexing strategy that would support indexed access for associative queries. But since every data relationship is indexed in the iLuminate correlation database, any field can be searched on, and unforeseen relationships can be easily and quickly exploited—without restructuring the database or writing any SQL code.

In short, illuminate enables you to focus on the question rather than on the technology used to provide the answer.