Why Use a Purpose-Built Time Series Database?

A time series database is specifically designed to efficiently handle data with timestamps collected at regular intervals, offering unique capabilities that set it apart from general-purpose databases like relational or NoSQL. These databases prioritize high write throughput and real-time data availability by embracing eventual consistency over full ACID compliance, which allows them to outperform even the most efficient OLTP databases in terms of write performance. InfluxDB, a prominent time series database, utilizes columnar storage and eschews traditional indexing to manage high cardinality without performance loss, enabling it to store and query datasets with unlimited unique values. This architecture allows for efficient time-based queries, with built-in optimizations and tools for data lifecycle management, making it ideal for scenarios involving large volumes of time series data. However, time series databases are not suitable for every use case, particularly when data integrity for individual rows is crucial, or data volumes are manageable by simpler systems like Postgres.