If you are a database administrator who is well-versed with the relational SQL databases, NoSQL may sometimes be alien technology.  NoSQL now comes out with non-relational and schema-less data storage schemes. Enlisting many versions under it, NoSQL is a typical umbrella term that encompasses various technologies. All these technologies under NoSQL are not necessarily related in any way beyond the primary characteristic of NoSQL. The fundamental characteristic of any NoSQL database is that it is not relational, and the Structured Query Language (SQL) is blended with relational DBMS for many decades now.

NoSQL vs. SQL– Needs and structure

As we discussed, NoSQL covers a wide range of tools, technologies, DBS, and data architectures. It can be considered as a distinct school of thought as it represents more of a movement than pushing a particular technology or technology branch even though the name comes as a bit confusing to even the DBAs, for many, it means any given data storage which does not use SQL as a query language. However, this can also be termed as Not Only SQL, which further says it covers SQL also, but the scope is not limited to SQL.

NoSQL is also considered as a movement being a part of guerilla marketing, which brings together a broader group of technologies under one banner. The idea which propagates these technologies is then underpinned by a myriad of solutions that exists in the umbrella of NoSQL in many such areas that need such solutions and considered to be an elite class cranny, now made accessible to even the small businesses too with open-source NoSQL solutions at a fraction of cost.

There is a tough question to choose between SQL and NoSQL for the organizations that now have a choice between them. The simple answer is that the organizations may benefit from a data model, which will best match the kind of storage and retrieval they perform in practice than in theory.  It also seems that most of the solutions put forward by the third-party providers now have a hybrid database solution of storage, which is a mix of client servers and n-tier structures, which are much common than the absolute commitments to a single strategy.

The technical leads here have a very important role in being available and understand the options to adapt to the software, services, and products that apply to their domains. Having a localized and logical strategy to adopt the best available NoSQL is the differentiating factor between success and failure in its adoption. Similar to how NoSQL presents many new challenges, it offers many rewards to those who can incorporate them successfully into the solutions portfolio. The major benefits of it will emerge around the improved data comprehension, productivity, and flexible scaling features. The latest varieties of new business models have better data storage needs that support them.There are providers like RemoteDBA.com offering reliable and cost-effective solutions in remote database administration.

Common features across NoSQL DBs

Overall, NoSQL is a huge and everyday expanding field with its common features as:

• Ease of use in the traditional load-balanced clusters
• Scale up to available memory.
• Data persistency, not just the caches
• No fixed schemas and can also allow schema migration without any downtime
• Individual query systems better than the standard query language (SQL)
• ACID compliance within a node of the cluster, being consistent across the clusters

Three key drivers now drive the increased interest in NoSQL. The first among these is the appearance of traffic driven by what is referred to as Social Web or Web 2.0. Being “web-scale,” which is a capacity planning approach, has become so pressing for the businesses or modern times? As the whole world is getting connected much and much stronger, the websites can experience massive up or down trends in traffic. Many of these may be the outcome of predictable events like Festivals or special events; however, some others may be unpredictable, as the pandemic situation now in 2020 or a terrorist attack, etc. Social media platforms like Facebook have made it easy for websites to experience huge popularity upswings as their items go viral on these platforms.

Another driver is the change in data over time and the new requirements it poses. As the business models continuously evolve with newer concepts, data models frequently struggle to evolve continuously and keep in pace with the change in models. This change is often a new data structure that is packed with archaic languages and patched with adaptive data.

The third and final factor behind the NoSQL hype is that this technology is now becoming a commodity. Once Google or Amazon had no choice but to find a bespoke solution that can answer all their problems related to scaling, NoSQL answered. For many years, the cost of bringing up the most comprehensive solution for this prevented even the big enterprises from having such a model at the heart of their business, but not this new technology addresses it well. The recent addition of codes to NoSQL is making it in the reach of even the smaller companies who can download and customize the NoSQL codes to make it a part of their enterprise architecture in a matter of days, if not weeks.

To conclude, a very common question people tend to ask about NoSQL now is whether people are using or just hype. The quick answer is that if you have used Amazon ever for shopping or have been to any of the various platforms of the internet giants like Google or Yahoo, you are also a user of the NoSQL solutions. If you have used Twitter or eBay, you have indirectly accessed the data stores that little resemble the traditional relational databases. So, we can assume that NoSQL’s hype is real, but when it comes to your enterprise adoption of NoSQL, you also need to know about the disruptive nature of this and have to plan it well to make it your advantage than a restriction.