Patent ID: 8682853

Claim:
A database system comprising: a first electronic storage that holds a complete copy of a database, the first electronic storage corresponding to an external storage system having a first data transfer rate to a database server; a second electronic storage that is separate from the first electronic storage, the second electronic storage holding at least a portion of the database, the second electronic storage corresponding to a local storage of the database server, the second electronic storage having a second data transfer rate to the database server, the second data transfer rate being faster than the first data transfer rate; and the database server configured to: receive a database query; read data requested in the database query in parallel from the first electronic storage and the second electronic storage; responsive to receipt of the database query, determine a size of a first portion of a set of result data for the database query from the first electronic storage and a size of a second portion of the set of result data for the database query from the second electronic storage based on a data throughput between the database server and the first electronic storage and a data throughput between the database server and the second electronic storage such that a retrieval, by the database server, of the first portion from the first electronic storage and the second portion from the second electronic storage in parallel takes approximately the same time; configure a first request for the first portion and a second request for the second portion; send the first request to the first electronic storage and the second request to the second electronic storage, retrieve the first portion from the first electronic storage and the second portion from the second electronic storage in parallel and send a response to the database query based on the first portion and the second portion.