What are the different methods to expedite the data retrieval from database?

Question

How can we expedite the data retrieval from the database for my web site which is extensively updating and fetching data from database.

Answer 1

Updating slows down databases. If you want to have high-performance reads while performing updates, you might try the following:

• Cluster your database. Have multiple databases to handle read queries, just do the writes to a single database, and distribute the updates in an orderly fashion. (Wikipedia does this, I'm told.)
• Increase the RAM in your database (ie: attack database performance).
• Decrease the number of indexes, as they take a long time to update.
• Change your database. MySQL is reportedly not as good as postgresql for these kinds of workloads.
• Batch updates to times when people aren't using the system (that's what many banks do).