RDBMS Trounces NoSQL Technology

March 25, 2010

I enjoyed “Fighting The NoSQL Mindset.” The article takes the arguments advanced by the group of data management upstarts who want to use No SQL databases. These range from Cassandra to MongoDB and almost any article listed on the NoSQL Web site. The arguments are anchored in some real world testing and the approach reminded me of some of the Googley talks I have heard in the last couple of years. The article is a long one. For me, the key passage was:

They do this because looking up data that can’t be cached in memory is an expensive operation. Yet as has been shown, SSDs, which are getting faster and cheaper regularly, completely flip the I/O equation. SSDs change everything.

My recommendation is to read this NoSQL article and then try to answer these questions which the goslings and I worked up at our social networking event this evening:

If the SQL database model were the bird in the hand, what was the reason for Google’s investment in its data management systems?
With hardware prices declining, why would Oracle focus on providing high end and quite expensive database appliances to address certain SQL licensees’ performance problems? Clever engineers should be able to knock down performance problems with off the shelf hardware and a good grasp of database basics.
With SQL solutions readily available, what’s with the proliferation of the NoSQL alternatives? The number of products and the interest in them suggest that there is some magnetic effect.

My view is that I am delighted to be an addled goose. I don’t have to sit in front of a CFO and explain why the data management systems are expensive and generally a drain on information users. Something is amiss. If not technology, then what? Maybe management? Maybe database expertise?

Stephen E Arnold, March 25, 2010

A freebie. I will report not getting paid to TSA, where Oracle databases are not quite as zippy in certain applications. But TSA does pay for work. Just not the goose.

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Database, Enterprise, Financial, News, Technology

Comments

2 Responses to “RDBMS Trounces NoSQL Technology”

ehcache.net on March 12th, 2011 3:58 am

RDBMS Trounces NoSQL Technology…

I enjoyed “Fighting The NoSQL Mindset.” The article takes the arguments advanced by the group of data management upstarts who want to use No SQL databases. These range from Cassandra to MongoDB and almost any article listed on the NoSQL Web site. The a…
Stephen E. Arnold on March 12th, 2011 10:08 pm

ehcache.net,

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Stephen E Arnold

Search the site
Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive

Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.