Re: DB Design Advice

"stoneg64(at)excite(dot)com" <stoneg64(at)excite(dot)com> wrote:
>
>
> >stoneg64(at)excite(dot)com wrote:
> >> Hey all,
> >>
> >> My company is designing a database in which we intend to store data
> >> for several customers. We are trying to decide if,
> >>
> >> A: we want to store all customer data in one set of tables with
> >> customer_id fields separating the data or,
> >> B: storing each customers data in a separate schema.
> >>
> >> I'd like to get some opinions on the pros and cons of these methods
> >> concerning maintainability, scalability, and performance.
> >
> >MHO, that would depend on what this data is and how you use it.
>
> Yeah, I figured you might say that.
>
> >Id this your company's data on your business with these customers, like
> >AR/AP transactions and so forth? Or is this data you're storing for
> >these companies, data thats really 'theirs', and that won't be used
> >together, such as their websites that you host ?
>
> I'd say that the data is more 'theirs' then ours. Customers' data shouldn't be used together but we may occasionally compare customer data. I'll also add that each customer should have a fairly significant amount of data.

If you're concerned about future-proofing your design, consider the fact
that it will be much easier to break the system apart if it outgrows a
single server and needs part of it to be moved to a separate server, if
the data is naturally separate (i.e., in different schemas, or even
different databases)

--
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com