The B-tree and the Log-Structured Merge-tree (LSM-tree) are the two most widely used data structures for data-intensive applications to organize and store data. However, each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.
LSM Tree is not a single data structure as a whole but combines multiple data structures that exploit the response times of different storage devices in the storage hierarchy. Being append only, it provides high rates of writes while still providing low cost reads via indexes maintained in RAM. In contrast to B+ tree based storage engine which performs in-place updates, there are no in-place updates in a LSM Tree and this helps in avoiding random I/Os.
...The B-tree and the Log-Structured Merge-tree (LSM-tree) are the two most widely used data structures for data-intensive applications to organize and store data. However, each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. This article aims to use quantitative approaches to compare these two data structures.
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