Table of Contents
- Summary
- Market Categories and User Segments
- Key Criteria Comparison
- GigaOm Radar
- Vendor Insights
- Analyst’s Take
- Methodology
- About Andrew Brust
- About GigaOm
- Copyright
1. Summary
This Radar report will help enterprise buyers become familiar with non-relational or NoSQL databases and vendor offerings. SQL stands for structured query language, a technology for querying data dating back decades. NoSQL (Not only SQL) is a different type of database that arose to meet the storage needs of Web 2.0 companies. NoSQL database solutions take non-traditional approaches to data storage, prioritizing schema flexibility and enabling easy scalability. Companies that are seeing rapid growth in their data, or that need to store and analyze variable data structures, might benefit from seeking out a NoSQL solution. Many NoSQL databases still operate using the BASE (basically available, soft state, eventual consistency) model, which promises a user that their database will reach consistency eventually but will require some time for the solution to accurately reflect the changes made after a transaction.
To say NoSQL databases—or non-relational, as vendors in the subcategory prefer—have matured would be an understatement. They have now overcome most if not all of the major limitations that dogged them previously: the primitive tooling and lack of SQL compatibility, strong consistency, secondary indexes, and backing by enterprise-grade vendors. Today, at least subsets of SQL are usable on most of the solutions reviewed here; tools and indexing capabilities are sophisticated; and hosted versions of many of these products, or solutions compatible with them, are offered by two of the three major cloud providers, who also have made sophisticated investments in NoSQL solutions of their own. If that weren’t reassuring enough, many of the NoSQL pure plays have now become enterprise software companies in their own right.
This report will help you understand the major NoSQL technologies, products, vendors, and service providers in the market and help you appreciate why these systems may be more appropriate for your requirements than their relational rivals—even as the latter onboard more NoSQL-like functionality of their own. You’ll see how each NoSQL pure play now has a branded cloud service and that major cloud providers offer major NoSQL solutions of their own. You’ll get a sense of which might be the best fit for your organization, and your horizons will be widened to encompass new requirements you may wish to add to your list.
Combine this report with its companions, “GigaOm Key Criteria Report for Evaluating Cloud and Operational Database Solutions” and the “GigaOm Radar Report for Cloud and Operational Databases: Relational,” to get a 360-degree view of the cloud and operational database market, including both relational and non-relational systems, pure-play companies, incumbent enterprise software vendors, and cloud providers. When you’re done, you should have a good sense of which database—or databases—will be best for your organization.
How to Read this Report
This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding, consider reviewing the following reports:
Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.
GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.
Solution Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.