[quassnoi]

"HDD bound" here means that not all data fits into the cache.

Given the average RAM size on even an entry-level server (some 16 or maybe even 8 GB) and the average size of a database (same 8GB on http://musicbrainz.org/, the largest online music database), I wouldn't claim that it's "most workloads".

[icey]

If we're comparing anecdotes, the smallest database I deal with on any given day is 50GB. Enterprise applications trap lots of data. I don't know that most of our queries are HDD bound, but a significant portion of them are.

[quassnoi]

OK, OK. Most of your workloads are HDD bound.

[icey]

Isn't that the definition of anecdote?

[alexro]

I think while the most performance-critical portion of your data fits in memory you should be alright with this method. The rest of the data can be consumed using normal SQL approach.