SQL Creator Endorses NoSQL ▉

Lindsay Clark, The Register:

Debate has raged among database experts, some of whom see the need for the NoSQL approach, while others argue the properties of NoSQL systems can be absorbed as features in relational systems. Most popular relational systems now support JSON documents, for example, while graph-style queries are possible in Oracle and PostgreSQL.

However, Chamberlin sees a need for NoSQL to support modern applications. For example, traditional relational systems guarantee asset record reserves on transactions to provide immediate consistency, he says.

“To get higher performance, now we’re often distributing data over clusters of machines,” he tells us, “and we’re satisfied with eventual consistency, meaning we can be patient, it will take a little while for all the machines to catch up. That’s necessary sometimes in highly scaled environments.”

I’ve always been a firm believer in the using the best tool for the job. I agree with Chamberlin that there absolutely is a place for both and that SQL should not go away. Regular relational database systems are much better at organizing data than NoSQL, even if NoSQL may be faster and better equipped for pulling data across multiple machines.

As always, it comes down to what your use case is.

> ▍