A NoSQL (often interpreted as Not Only SQL) database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that is modeled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases.
The original intention has been modern web-scale databases. The movement began early 2009 and is growing rapidly. Often more characteristics apply such as: schema-free, easy replication support, simple API, eventually consistent / BASE (not ACID), a huge amount of data and more. So the misleading term “nosql” (the community now translates it mostly with “not only sql“) should be seen as an alias to something like the definition above.
NoSQL Database Types
- Document databases pair each key with a complex data structure known as a document. Documents can contain many different key-value pairs, or key-array pairs, or even nested documents.
- Graph stores are used to store information about networks, such as social connections. Graph stores include Neo4J and HyperGraphDB.
- Key-value stores are the simplest NoSQL databases. Every single item in the database is stored as an attribute name (or “key”), together with its value. Examples of key-value stores are Riak and Voldemort. Some key-value stores, such as Redis, allow each value to have a type, such as “integer”, which adds functionality.
- Wide-column stores such as Cassandra and HBase are optimized for queries over large datasets, and store columns of data together, instead of rows.
The Benefits of NoSQL
When compared to relational databases, NoSQL databases are more scalable and provide superior performance, and their data model addresses several issues that the relational model is not designed to address:
- Large volumes of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data
- Agile sprints, quick iteration, and frequent code pushes
- Object-oriented programming that is easy to use and flexible
- Efficient, scale-out architecture instead of expensive, monolithic architecture
There are many NoSQL DB present the market (about 150). Some of them are listed below.
Hadoop / HBase
MapR, Hortonworks, Cloudera
Apache Flink (incubating)
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