Query optimization with Starburst Enterprise’s managed statistics

In the ever-evolving world of data analytics, organizations are constantly seeking innovative ways to optimize query performance and extract valuable insights from their data. 

Statistics play a crucial role in query engines like Trino as they enable the query planner to make informed decisions when optimizing queries. By having access to comprehensive statistical information about tables and columns, Trino can estimate the size, selectivity, and distribution of data, allowing it to choose the most efficient query execution plan. Statistics enable Trino to make accurate cost-based optimizations, such as selecting appropriate join strategies, determining the order of operations, and estimating resource requirements. 

This ultimately leads to improved query performance, reduced resource consumption, and faster insights, making statistics an invaluable asset for enhancing the capabilities of query engines like Trino.

Understanding the challenge

One significant challenge is dealing with data sources that provide limited or insufficient statistics, making it difficult for the query planner to make informed decisions. Some data sources may lack comprehensive statistical information, leading to suboptimal query plans and performance issues.

This deficiency in statistics poses a significant hurdle for organizations that rely on accurate and efficient query execution to meet their business requirements. Without detailed statistics, the query planner may make uninformed decisions, resulting in slow queries, increased resource consumption, and missed optimization opportunities.

How managed statistics works

 

First introduced in the 407-e LTS, managed statistics revolutionizes query optimization within Starburst Enterprise. It allows the platform to collect and store table and column statistics for select data sources that either provide limited statistics or none at all. By augmenting the existing statistics with managed statistics, the cost-based optimizer gains valuable insights, enabling it to make more informed decisions when planning queries.

Managed statistics in Starburst Enterprise works by collecting and storing statistical information about tables within the platform’s metadata. By configuring managed statistics for specific data sources, users can ensure a more comprehensive and accurate representation of their data, even when the original source lacks sufficient statistics.

When queries are executed, the query planner leverages these managed statistics along with the data source statistics to generate optimal query plans. The enhanced statistical knowledge empowers the planner to make smarter decisions, leading to improved query performance, reduced resource utilization, and faster insights.

Benefits of managed statistics

• Enhanced query performance: Starburst Enterprise now reads statistics from an in-memory cache by default. This enhancement significantly improves performance, ensuring that statistical information is readily available for the query planner, further boosting query optimization and overall system efficiency.
  
• Resource optimization: With accurate and detailed statistics, the query planner can select the most efficient execution plan, reducing resource consumption. Managed statistics enable organizations to maximize their existing infrastructure investments and scale their data analytics capabilities without unnecessary hardware upgrades.
• Improved data exploration: The availability of managed statistics enables users to explore their data more effectively. By making informed decisions based on comprehensive statistics, users can uncover valuable insights and patterns that would otherwise remain hidden.
• Adaptability to diverse data sources: Managed statistics can be configured for specific data sources, making Starburst Enterprise flexible and adaptable to various data ecosystems. Managed statistics are generally available for Teradata, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and now in public preview for, Snowflake, MySQL, SQL Server, Redshift, This broader connector support ensures that organizations can benefit from managed statistics across a diverse range of data sources, making it adaptable to their specific ecosystem.
  
  
• Future-proofing data analytics: As organizations continuously expand their data landscapes and integrate new data sources, managed statistics provide a proactive approach to maintaining performance. By collecting and storing statistics within the platform, users can easily adapt to changes in data sources and ensure ongoing optimization.

With improved query plans, reduced resource consumption, and accelerated data exploration, managed statistics empower users to make informed decisions, and derive valuable insights from their data with greater efficiency.

Interested in hearing more and seeing managed statistics in action? 

Join our Maximizing query performance with managed statistics in Starburst Enterprise as we dive deep into the value and functionality of managed statistics. Register now to secure your spot and take the first step towards maximizing query performance with Starburst Enterprise’s managed statistics.