> But realize that there are very real problem with those types of >analysis solutions when dealing with OLTP databases -- otherwise there >would be solutions available (that don't have license fees that are >more than the total sending cost of sending a child to a US Ivy League >school for 4 years).

yes i understand, but now with my 50 millions rows table i start to meet the limit of firebird where a simple prepare can take around 1 s to 1 min dependantly the charge of the server (see my previous post). next year it's will be around 100 millions rows and i will have no solutions ... this why i start to thing about sharding in an easy way, in a way out in fact