NoSQL For Dummies

Chapter 34

Ten Advantages of NoSQL over RDBMS

In This Chapter

Saving development time

Increasing flexibility

Reducing cost

I’ve said throughout this book that NoSQL databases are not a direct replacement for an relational database management system (RDBMS). For many data problems, though, NoSQL is a better match than an RDBMS. I point out the most useful advantages in this chapter.

Less Need for ETL

NoSQL databases support storing data “as is.” Key-value stores give you the ability to store simple data structures, whereas document NoSQL databases provide you with the ability to handle a range of flat or nested structures.

Most of the data flying between systems does so as a message. Typically, the data takes one of these formats:

• A binary object to be passed through a set of layers
• An XML document
• A JSON document

Being able to handle these formats natively in a range of NoSQL databases lessens the amount of code you have to convert from the source data format to the format that needs storing. This is called extract, transform, and load (ETL).

Using this approach, you greatly reduce the amount of code required to start using a NoSQL database. Moreover, because you don’t have to pay for ...