NoSQL Matters??… Yes it does!!....

Reflecting on the 2015 Conference in Dublin….

Last week, after winning a free ticket in a competition from the *Hadoop User Group on meetup.com, I attended a NoSQL conference in Dublin and was fascinated by the progress in NoSQL technology, which was show cased on the day!

There were very strong presentations from VoltDB and ArangoDB.com showcasing their offerings in integration and multi-model NoSQL databases that set my mind alight with ideas and thoughts. Also of note was a presentation from Bit Expert’s “Stephan” on PostgresSQL and what it can do. It was an enlightening exploration of how JSON and NoSQL can play so well together!!

The concepts that were floated at the conference were all great but from what I have seen, the first prize goes to ArangoDB.com and their Multi-Model NoSQL database. The concept of having a database that is secure, can handle Key Value stores, documents stores and Blob storage on one database is most impressive indeed. The amount of coding in small to medium level project teams would be reduced along with design concepts like “micro-services” which augments functionality through the use of “Foxx” (JavaScript Framework, they use Node.js) to widen inbound data sources and thus the effectiveness of the application. To critically complete the evaluation, I would like to know more about the security aspects of the multi-model offering and also note that for large data modelling jobs, Hadoop would probably be a better solution. That said, ArangoDB.com have created a pioneering product that brings NoSQL technology to smaller projects that would traditionally have relied on relational databases. More information on my No. 1 presentation at: https://www.arangodb.com/foxx/.

 VoltDB had a strong presentation on database design and how VoltDB effectively streamlines important areas of network and database management under one roof where a solution currently could see numerous venders fulfilling different aspects of your relational and non relational database needs. I also had the pleasure of working briefly with the speaker Akmal Chaudhri in early 2000 whilst we both were at Informix Software and am glad to see the quality of his work is still exactingly high, which reflects in the very logical solution behind VoltDB’s offering. They say if you surround yourself with like-minded people, you can do great things. It certainly looks that way at VoltDB! They earned my No. 2 vote!

One other notable presentation is from Nathan Ford on monitoring and defect management, which is something Developers generally are not that fussed about. However, wearing my risk management hat, I think we Developers could be thinking more deeply about defect management and I love Nathan’s graph based defect management system for clusters that if developed further could be a real competitor for more developed systems like Prometheus. It’s efficient and with development continuing, a real winner for standard systems monitoring, unobtrusive defect capture and system behaviour analysis could surface in the not too distant future. Developers can gain a real insight into how their code behaves in a system (v design intent) and thus streamline their code for better efficacy and outcomes. Nathan’s talk and ideas earns him my No. 3 vote!

There was a diverse and interesting group of folks there from the NoSQL world to software nerds like myself to the Data Science world whom all agree that NoSQL does matter and despite what some folks say… it is here to stay! With the onset of new technologies that widen the scope of NoSQL, the technologies which streamline relational and non-relational databases into a single user friendly cluster application are here and will gain more and more acceptance in business when business fully realises their needs in diverse dataset management and/or big data analysis. A key indicator of this position is the adoption of NoSQL by key industry players like Microsoft and also Oracle who initially lobbied against NoSQL. The acceptance of NoSQL by key industry players like these is an important milestone in the lifecycle of NoSQL and with time, business will become more and more comfortable with it, when they see it does more then simply replicate the initial success of Google’s Big table.

For business in times to come, NoSQL could be the differentiating factor for their success against a competition that is tightly coupled with only SQL/relational database technology. Personally, I think this is not a question of “if”; it’s a question of “when”. Finding the fit for your network and database needs is not an easy task especially when the landscape is changing as hyper-connectivity increases and more and more competitive edge is driven by data science for business. Early adaptors in business given the technology’s stage in development should certainly be aware of NoSQL and plan for it’s incorporation into their digital footprint.  In my view, not evaluating NoSQL today in your business’s journey may cost you dearly tomorrow… the only way is to evaluate it and find out if there is a present or future need for NoSQL!!... The results just may surprise you! 

For more on the conference, visit NoSQL Matters website at https://2015.nosql-matters.org/dub/#home

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.unsplash.com

www.2015.nosql.matters.org

www.cs.brown.edu

Credits;

*Many thanks to Silviu and Uli from the Hadoop User Group for hosting the competition where I won the ticket to NoSQL Matters conference 2015. More on this key industry group at http://www.meetup.com/hadoop-user-group-ireland/