Another instance of the Wikipedia page for a product [1] being more useful than the main site to describe it:
* MemSQL is a distributed, in-memory, SQL database management system.
* It is a relational database management system (RDBMS).
* It compiles Structured Query Language (SQL) into machine code, via termed code generation.
* On April 23, 2013, MemSQL launched its first generally available version of the database to the public.
* MemSQL is wire-compatible with MySQL.
* MemSQL can store database tables either as rowstores or columnstores (The OLAP vs OLTP part I guess).
* A MemSQL database is a distributed database implemented with aggregators and leaf nodes.
* MemSQL durability is slightly different for its in-memory rowstore and an on-disk columnstore.
* A MemSQL cluster can be configured in "High Availability" mode.
* MemSQL gives users the ability to install Apache Spark as part of the MemSQL cluster, and use Spark as an ETL tool.
The main value proposition seems to be the distributed nature, which probably makes it easier to setup out of the box than, say, trying to setup a cluster MySQL or PostgreSQL databases which are not "natively distributed". Also, probably most useful when the data is "big enough" vs resources available on any single server or when reliability is very important.
* MemSQL is a distributed, in-memory, SQL database management system.
* It is a relational database management system (RDBMS).
* It compiles Structured Query Language (SQL) into machine code, via termed code generation.
* On April 23, 2013, MemSQL launched its first generally available version of the database to the public.
* MemSQL is wire-compatible with MySQL.
* MemSQL can store database tables either as rowstores or columnstores (The OLAP vs OLTP part I guess).
* A MemSQL database is a distributed database implemented with aggregators and leaf nodes.
* MemSQL durability is slightly different for its in-memory rowstore and an on-disk columnstore.
* A MemSQL cluster can be configured in "High Availability" mode.
* MemSQL gives users the ability to install Apache Spark as part of the MemSQL cluster, and use Spark as an ETL tool.
The main value proposition seems to be the distributed nature, which probably makes it easier to setup out of the box than, say, trying to setup a cluster MySQL or PostgreSQL databases which are not "natively distributed". Also, probably most useful when the data is "big enough" vs resources available on any single server or when reliability is very important.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MemSQL