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As a side question, what exactly is the benefit of a time-series database vs a regular relational database? Is it just a special case or a relational database, where rows are stored based on time, so that time-based queries are more efficient? Or is there some other fundamental difference that makes it more useful?

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I understood the need for a time-series server when I was developing a real-time DAU metric server.

There's a cool hack

http://blog.getspool.com/2011/11/29/fast-easy-realtime-metri...

But not as cool as a time series db.

The issue is that treating dates as keys makes it hard to model normal intuitions about time when constructing queries.

You might find this talk informative: http://www.cs.nyu.edu/shasha/papers/jagtalk.html

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