2015 will be a milestone year for RTS
when we will scale new heights in product development and in delivering quality
solutions. It gets me really excited to share information about an upcoming
technology that I am passionate about- “new
generation databases”.
We all know about databases – a very
interesting piece of technology, to store large amounts of information – textual,
numeric, pictures, even videos – that can support on demand retrieval and usage
at a later time. Traditional databases like Oracle, MSSQL Server etc. provide
long-term data storage to computer software – everything from mobile phone apps
to a large enterprise application involving many interconnected computers. They
can handle many operations (such as filtering and sorting data, logging, roll
back, secure processing of data in a multi user environment,etc.) at the database
end.
However there is a big constraint. In
order to set up these traditional databases, we need to have professional
expertise in SQL (Structured Query Language). SQL as a language is different
from the language in which applications are developed, so an extra effort is
required to achieve that seamless integration between the application code and the
database itself.
A solution to this has come in the
form of new generation (no/new sql) databases which explore a new way of storing
data. Objects and information are stored more directly – using library
functions and objects from the language used to develop applications. An age
old notion has been challenged that only “relational
databases should be used”, making them immensely popular among the developer
community.
New generation (no/new sql) databases
are designed in a way such that maximum processing is handled by the
application. Like traditional database solutions they do not apply many
restrictions on how to store data. They just save what is provided by the
application making them highly optimized for data storage and retrieval thus providing
excellent performance. The best part, because most of it is open source, is no
hefty licence fees or yearly renewals are required , resulting in significant
cost savings.
Key Strengths of No/New SQL Databases:
·
Can
be used to store highly variable data structures, and even unstructured data.
·
Accessible
from the language as used in the application
·
Fast
storage and retrieval
But do our new generation databases
suit every application? No, not as of now.
They are good in scenarios where less number of users make very large changes
to data at different times, where success of “transactions” may not be
guaranteed
or when a high level of isolation
between the data storage and the running applications is not desired.
If
there is problem, there is a solution also.
Using
an entirely new level of innovation and engagement, a mix of relational and new generation (No/New SQL) databases is already being
implemented across the technology world with great success.
Combining the best from relational databases
(Stability, Security and Suitability) with the best from new generation
databases (Speed, Savings and Schema less) many organizations have transformed
the way they experience technology.
In coming times, in order to develop
data rich applications, as No/New SQL solutions become more mature and popular,
they would certainly provide an increasingly logical choice for application
development and business growth.
Please
share your views on how you feel No/New SQL databases will impact our choice
for databases in future.
