DB Recommendation While Minimizing Size I apologize if this question is too specific, if it is, please let me know!

I have searched around both on here and the web on selecting the best project-specific engine to fit your needs, and have come up with nothing. So, generally, what is the best way to select a host/DB Management System?

In my specific case, I will have a DB storing data from now on (forever?) from up to 150 sources, with data coming every 30s 24/7/365 (up to 300 rows added/min). Each source will be inserting into it's own table. The data will be read in bulk from each table - e.g. dumping 1k+ rows at a time.

A general explanation on how to highlight the positives and negatives of each option would be immensely helpful.

Once I've selected a platform to start on, what can I do to minimize the space I use? I plan to match data types with the data coming in, but here is an example:

{ (up to)12-digit unsigned int, date/time(epoch), unsigned long, signed int (&lt;10k), unsigned int (&lt;1k), unsigned int (&lt;250), unsigned double (&lt;500) }
{ 120308, 1428844432, 8222786, -5, 0, 0, 24.7 }


Thank you for any help you may have.
Short answer: It depends on a lot of different things.

Longer answer w/ questions: If you haven't used any database management systems before, then any of the main options (SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL) will suit your needs. However, do you already have a DBMS installed on a server, or is this a personal project starting from scratch? Do you require a physical server and your own copy of the software, or are you willing to explore cloud-based options?

What are your plans for backup and restoration of critical data? What level of availability do you need (for example, 5 9s)? Apart from loading data every 30 seconds, are you querying this data often or at all, or are you simply storing it?

Without knowing anything else about your application, how it's going to be sending data to this central DB, and how you're going to use the data, it's hard to make a firm recommendation (at least for me).

As for data types and minimising space used, you've got the right idea. Good indexing strategies based on a use case come into play when trying to minimise data usage. Minimising data duplication (look at normalisation forms if you're not sure about it) using properly set up Dimension and Fact tables in the appropriate layout (Star, Snowflake etc.), assuming a Data Warehouse use (that's sort of what it sounds like) will help with query performance as well as minimising space used.

TL;DR: Just spin up an instance or two of Microsoft SQL Server on Microsoft Azure to test your application/service and see how it goes. It's scalable, can be well within a small budget and if you don't need it, you can get rid of it.

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/sql-database/