Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/98946
ILTA's 2012 Financial Management Poll Results relational database was the new kid on the block. Now you know them well. The open-source relational engine, MySQL, has been making its presence known in the enterprise for many years. The Internet giant, Facebook, is largely powered by MySQL. On other fronts, modern relational database management system (RDBMS) engines are being scorned by academics like Dr. Michael Stonebraker. Stonebraker, who helped write Ingres and Postgres (two RDBMSs), believes the relational engines, now a generation old, should be scrapped in favor of a fresh start. He believes the relational engine is a compromise on many things, and performance suffers in the end, compared to niche database platforms. Stonebraker himself has founded VoltDB, an alternative to the traditional RDBMS. Along Comes NoSQL The most radical developments in the database world in the past five years have been in the NoSQL realm. The term NoSQL, originally neutrally coined to mean "not only SQL," has sometimes been interpreted negatively to be antiSQL or antirelational by database developers, administrators and managers. A NoSQL database (in many cases, calling them "databases" is generous) is best thought of as structured storage, with a few twists. There are currently over one hundred versions in various flavors. Nonrelational databases are certainly nothing new. The mainframe variants, like information management systems (IMS) and integrated database management systems (IDMS), actually predate the relational model. These platforms continue to occupy a niche market even ILTA White Paper 37