Company
Date Published
Author
Evan Klein
Word count
1912
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

NoSQL databases, unlike traditional SQL databases, are designed to handle large volumes of diverse data types without adhering to a strict schema, making them ideal for modern web-scale and real-time applications. The article compares three popular NoSQL databases: Cassandra, MongoDB, and HBase, each offering unique features and advantages. Cassandra, a wide column store database, excels in scalability and high availability, making it suitable for real-time applications but may suffer from inconsistency in replicas and lacks solid official documentation. MongoDB, a document store, provides flexibility through JSON-like documents and supports high availability with replica sets, though it faces challenges with memory usage and manual management tasks. HBase, also a wide column store, is built on Hadoop's HDFS and offers immediate consistency and failover support, but its master-slave architecture can be a single point of failure and requires complex integration with other systems. The choice between these databases depends on specific use cases, such as Cassandra's suitability for always-on applications, MongoDB's fit for real-time analytics, and HBase's strength in handling write-heavy applications.