Normalized databases fair very well under conditions where the applications are write-intensive and the write-load is more than the read-load. This is because of the following reasons: Normalized tables are usually smaller and have a smaller foot-print because the data is divided vertically among many tables. This allows them to perform better as they are small enough to get fit into the buffer. The updates are very fast because the data to be updated is located at a single place and there are no duplicates. Similarly the inserts are very fast because the data has to be inserted at a single place and does not have to be duplicated. The selects are fast in cases where data has to be fetched from a single table, because normally normalized tables are small enough to get fit into the buffer. Because the data is not duplicated so there is less need for heavy duty group by or distinct queries.