Write Optimization in Storage Systems

Write optimization refers to a set of techniques used to improve the performance of databases and file systems. Examples of write optimized data structures include Log-Structured Merge trees (LSMs) and Bε-trees. Systems that use such data structures include BetrFS, HBase, LevelDB, TableFS, TokuMX, TokuDB, etc.

This tutorial reviews write-optimization from the perspective of the analysis and engineering. We provide a framework for understanding which data structure will perform well on which workloads.