What is volume in terms of databases?

Question

I was reading a text. It said,

"Information presentation must be compatible with the response time needs of 
systems. The response time should be short enough that the information  does not 
lose its freshness and value but it should be long enough to reduce volume (and 
costs) and reveal important trends that signal the need for action"

What does volume mean in it? Please help out. Thanks

Answer 1

Volume in this context simply means size and amount of data.

• Low volume = less data
• More volume = more data

Answer 2

Oded is right, but in the case of databases, this can mean not just the amount of data that you return, but also the number of queries or requests it takes to get there.

This text appears to be talking about performance of a chatty information dashboard. The tradeoff is always "OK, do I grab a bunch of data up front and save making lots of requests, or do I get the data up as quickly as possible by using small requests that return limited portions of the dashboard".

Your needs will vary, depending on the application.