SQL vs NoSQL: A Guideline for Differentiation between Two Databases
JANUARY 20, 2020SQL vs NoSQL: A Guideline for Differentiation between Two Databases
There are different types of databases such as SQL databases and NoSQL databases used today in the industry. Now a question arises, what is the difference between SQL and NoSQL? SQL Database is a relational yet conventional database and a structured one that uses a tabular relational model to represent data and their relationship. The NoSQL database is the new yet Non-relational database that provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data other than the model of the tabular relation used in relational databases. SQL database is vertically scalable, whereas the NoSQL database is horizontally scalable.
There are certain key differences between SQL Database and NoSQL Database that users must keep in mind when making a decision.
1.Type: SQL database is a type of Relational Databases (RDBMS); whereas, the NoSQL database is considered as a non-relational, or distributed database.
2. Language: SQL is an extremely powerful language and the most versatile option that makes it a safe choice, especially for great complex queries. SQL requires you to use predefined schemas to determine the structure of your data (data must follow the same structure) before you work with it; whereas NoSQL database has dynamic schema for unstructured data, which means data is stored in many ways, be it document-oriented, column-oriented, graph-based or organized as a Key-Value store. This NoSQL database has flexibility means that documents can be created without having a defined structure first.
3. Structure: SQL database is a table-based structure, which makes relational SQL databases a better option for applications that require multi-row transactions such as an accounting system or for legacy systems; whereas, NoSQL database is either document-based, key-value pairs, graph databases or wide-column stores.
4. Property Followed: SQL database follows certain properties such as Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID); whereas, the NoSQL database follows the Brewers CAP theorem, which includes Consistency, Availability, and Partition tolerance.
5. Scalability: SQL database is vertically scalable, which means you can increase the load on a single server by increasing things like RAM, CPU, or SSD; whereas NoSQL database is horizontally scalable that means you handle more traffic by sharding or adding more servers in your NoSQL database. For example, it is like to addition of more floors to the same building against adding more buildings to the neighborhood, and therefore, can ultimately become more powerful, making these databases the ideal choice for large data sets.
6. Support: Great support is available for the SQL database and even a lot of independent consultations also provided to them who can help you with SQL database for a very large scale deployments; whereas, for some NoSQL database only limited outside experts are available for setting up and deploying your large scale NoSQL deployments and you have to rely on community support. For example, SQL databases include PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server, and the NoSQL database includes Redis, RavenDB Cassandra, MongoDB, BigTable, HBase, Neo4j, and CouchDB.
Advantages of SQL Database
- The SQL database system is owned and managed by Oracle.
- An extremely established database, which means there are a huge community, extensive testing and quite a bit of stability.
- The SQL database is free and open-source.
- Available for important platforms, such as Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD, and Solaris
- It is a strong choice for any business that benefits from its pre-defined structure and set schemas.
Advantages of NoSQL Database
- Servers for NoSQL can be added or removed from the data layer without application downtime
- Bigger data handling capability
- Maintenance for NoSQL server is inexpensive
- Data can be inserted without first defining a rigid database schema.
- Integrated coaching facility.
Over to You
Both the databases such as SQL and NoSQL have been great inventions, which are used to keep data storage and retrieval optimized and smooth. These two technologies are best in what they do. Thus it is up to a developer how he puts either one of the technologies to use that again depends on the business situations.
