Databases–Relational vs. “NoSQL”

In a couple of weeks we’ll be looking at relational databases using the SQL language as the method of interacting with the database, pretty much the standard for small to big business at the moment.  In the last few years several very big internet companies have developed NoSQL alternatives that are faster with monster amounts of data.  This article, an interview with a partisan, gives you some idea of the issues. 

Note that MySQL was purchased by Oracle so the MariaDB mentioned is an effort to keep an opensource large-scale relational database available.

“Big Data may be the poster child for NoSQL databases and date warehouses, but one industry veteran isn't giving up on SQL databases for Big Data just yet.

As most IT watchers know, Big Data is perceived as so large that it's difficult to process using relational databases and software techniques. Of course, the relational model and SQL dominate today's database landscape. But on the other side there are databases built without relations, made for higher scalability. We asked the expert in the database area, Monty Widenius, about the current and future state of SQL, NoSQL and Big Data. As the author of the original version of the open-source MySQL database, and one of the founders of the community-developed branch of the MySQL database, MariaDB, his take on Big Data bucks the conventional wisdom that large-scale data must abandon SQL databases.”