11 Best NoSQL Database for Effective Management of Data

Data is the king today and for years, developers have used SQL for their database management activities. Now, with organizations handling millions of users concurrently with different types of structured and unstructured data, NoSQL has been garnering popularity. NoSQL databases are the latest mantra today in terms of performance, agility, and scalability.

There are multiple NoSQL databases that are popular world over, each having its own set of characteristics. Through this article, we have come up with the best NoSQL database that have been gaining traction across businesses. The compiled NoSQL database list can be of great help as you are about to finalize the best choice for your organization. Prior to that, let us glance through the characteristics of a NoSQL database.

What is a NoSQL Database?

A NoSQL (originally referring to “non-SQL” or “non-relational”) database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that is modeled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases. – Wikipedia

NoSQL databases are non-tabular structures that are ideal for large distributed systems since the are faster and more scalable in managing huge data loads, as compared to traditional relational databases. They don’t make use of the standard tabular structure and don’t need fixed set columns. They support horizontal scaling, flexible data models, fast queries, and avoid making use of JOINs.

The four key NoSQL database types are key-value store, graph database, document store, and wide-column oriented database.

Some of the salient advantages of having a NoSQL database are:

• Flexible and dynamic data model for data storage
• Easy scaling of server points with intact performance
• Enhanced development time with minimal coding
• Optimized potential of infrastructural capabilities
• Seamless support for business apps with increased access
• Storing structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data
• Easy access to data from any device, anywhere, at any time

A NoSQL database can store data of different types such as video clippings, images, social media utilization, text documents, mobile device activities, etc. Amazon, SAP, Google, Facebook, Adobe, Capgemini, LinkedIn, J P. Morgan are some of the many popular organizations leveraging the potential of the most popular NoSQL databases.

11 Best NoSQL Databases That Are Popular

• HBase
• Cassandra
• MongoDB
• Couchbase
• Amazon DynamoDB
• Redis
• RavenDB
• OrientDB
• Neo4j
• Memcached
• MarkLogic

HBase:

As one of the best NoSQL databases, HBase has been a non-relational, column-oriented, distributed Hadoop database that supports billions of rows and columns of data using commodity hardware clusters. It is developed as part of the Apache Software Foundation’s Apache Hadoop project and executes on an HDFS file storage enabling management of huge datasets and empowering users to enter servers anytime. It supports auto-sharding, scalability, flexibility with schema design, and consistent reading and writing competencies.

Cassandra:

Cassandra is a free and open-source, high-performing database that supports the NoSQL way of working. It supports fault-tolerance on commodity hardware and cloud infrastructure. It can easily manage failed node replacements without switching off the systems with multiple data replication across nodes. Users can conveniently scale data storage capacities as needed. It is an ideal choice for multi-data center deployments and offers seamless integration with other JVM-based applications.

An Interesting Comparison: HBase vs Cassandra: Assessing Two Popular NoSQL Databases

MongoDB:

MongoDB is one of the most popular and best NoSQL databases that is general-purpose and document-oriented. It offers a horizontal architecture that can manage huge volumes of data. It is a scalable database accessible in C++ and can serve well as a query language. It is fit for horizontal scaling through a process called sharding. Some of its salient features are high speed and performance, easy setup, support for Ad Hoc queries, does not follow a fixed schema.

An Exciting Evaluation: Cassandra vs MongoDB: Comparing Two Popular NoSQL Databases

Couchbase:

Couchbase is a web-oriented, single-node, easy-to-use NoSQL database that offers a flexible data model with great performance and scalability. It offers lessened network, memory, and storage costs. It stores data with JSON documents that can be easily accessed through the web browser. It makes use of various protocols and formats for effective storage, processing, and transfer of data. It offers aggregate optimization, has a crash-resistant structure, and keeps saving data continuously.

Amazon DynamoDB:

Powered by Amazon, DynamoDB is one of the most popular NoSQL database, that is fully managed and includes documents, graphs, and columnar data models. It has an auto-scaling capability, and it runs the queries through a user-defined primary key. It supports document data structure and cloud services. It is simple to install and offers at-rest encryption to lessen the complication of protecting sensitive data. On-demand backup facilities and on-point recovery is available with auto scalability and in-memory caching.

Redis:

Redis is a leading, open-source, NoSQL database that has an in-memory data structure store that gives a very fast performance. It is written in ANSI C and is leveraged as a database and message broker. It offers support for many data structures like sets, strings, sorted sets, lists, etc. It works well with almost all programming languages and with Linux and OS X OS. It owns range queries, geospatial indexes, bitmaps, and streams.

RavenDB

RavenDB is a leading member of the NoSQL database list, that is created especially for .NET. It offers the combined goodness of a NoSQL database and a relational database. There is complete transactional data integrity (ACID) with broad cross-functional integrity. It offers a great deal of scalability and hence can create newer nodes with increased data demand. It is easily installable on major cloud services like Azure, AWS, GCP, etc.

OrientDB:

OrientDB is an open-source NoSQL database that merges the strength of graphs and the flexibility of documents to offer a robust, scalable database. It offers support for different models like documents, graphs, object key/value models, etc. It is written in Java and is considered speedy for read/write operations. It focuses hard on reliability and security. There is a graph editor through which you can visualize data and interact with it. There is schema flexibility for your app requirements.

Neo4j:

Neo4j is one of the best NoSQL databases that is also referred to as a native graph database since it is graph-based, open-source, and offers an ACID-compliant transactional system. The data is stored just the way you want it and hence can be easily accessed. The database can even travel the graph through pointers. Neo4j also delivers drivers for Java, .NET, JavaScript, Python, and Go.

Memcached:

Memcached is a free, open-source, distributed, popular memory object caching system that is meant to lessen the load on the database by offering high-performance and fastening applications. It offers quick installation and detailed documentation with a large community support. It is a simplistic yet robust NoSQL database. The simple design, that it offers, facilitates faster development and deployment.

MarkLogic:

MarkLogic is a known, multi-model, member of the NoSQL databases list. It can manage complicated data integration cases in a competitive business infrastructure. It empowers users to achieve data agility, enhances insightful decision-making, and merges user data with other associated components to offer a single platform. It connects and manages your data and metadata to utilize knowledge across the organization.

Best NoSQL Database: Summing It Up

NoSQL is ideally recommended for organizations that are facing constant change in data, dealing with huge and continuously growing data, need a great deal of scalability and flexibility, and when data integrity is not most important.

The above NoSQL databases list is a curated bundle of the best NoSQL databases that have proven their mettle in the world of data-driven organizations. All of them are worthy, it finally depends on certain organization-specific factors like budgeted costs, scalability, project needs, time schedules, high availability, and reliability to finalize the choice.

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