According to a survey by Information Week, almost half of all business IT professionals haven’t heard of NoSQL (44%). With such a significant number of professionals unaware of this technology, why should you switch to this type of data collection and storage format? The advantages of NoSQL are compelling and will only get more compelling as data storage needs continue to increase exponentially in years to come.

Relational Database

The relational database(RDBMS) has been the leader in databases for almost twenty-five years. As time has moved on though, “cloud,” or “NoSQL” databases are quickly gaining ground as a new wave in database management. Why have they started to crowd out the RDBMS though? What are the advantages for businesses with large-scale data storage needs?

The mass quantities of big data that can be consumed by NoSQL systems are far and away ahead of what can be handled by even the biggest RDBMS. NoSQL is not necessarily going to just impose itself in place of RDBMS, but it can complement those systems as well. It’s no wonder that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Amazon, LinkedIn, and Google all use NoSQL in some way. Social networking requires the storage of so much data, and that data can degrade if these companies were to rely solely on RDBMS.

NoSQL systems are made for data stores that encompass large scale data storage capabilities. Facebook and Twitter accumulate so much data each and every day, that it’s no wonder that they need NoSQL systems.

NoSQL Database

NoSQL databases also offer lower cost perper gigabyte or transaction/second than traditional RDBMS. They use cheaper servers, require less cost per installation, and require less maintenance. The data can be stored in relatively cheap Intel type servers, which make the cost reduction in servers alone substantial. Other types of data storage require an expensive (because they are well trained) DBA for installation, design, and maintenance. This cost is not as substantial for NoSQL databases because they not only use cheaper servers, but they are also not as high maintenance once those less expensive servers have been installed.

Another advantage of the NoSQL system is that it is more flexible when changes need to be made. Change management can be a huge headache for RDBMS. Requiring lots of downtime for servers and lost production that results from that downtime. Fewer services will be available during that time as well, which may result in customer dissatisfaction and even loss of revenue for businesses. NoSQL stores data differently so changes do not have to be made as one. They can be spread across several application changes and database schema changes. This results in less downtime, more revenue, and in general more flexibility during changes.

Support Key-Value

NoSQL systems support key-value stores, document stores, common family stores, and graph databases. Key value stores are based primarily on Amazon’s Dynamo model. Document stores were based on or influenced by Lotus Notes. Common family stores are used by Google in their big table NoSQL version. Graph databases use a flexible node model that can distribute data across many servers. This gives NoSQL a wide variety of storage types that cover the data storage needs of an equally diverse variety of businesses. This diversity is another manifestation of how much more flexible NoSQL can be compared to the traditional RDBMS.

What good is storing huge amounts of data if that data is hard or impossible to access? This question points out another strength of NoSQL, the ease of data retrieval. There are so many advantages to this new, stronger, and more flexible type of data storage model that it’s not hard to see why more businesses will start switching to NoSQL in the next couple of years.

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