Distributed Database Comparison

Over the past decade, the development of fully distributed databases has become increasingly prominent, distinguishing themselves from traditional databases by enabling global distribution across public clouds, availability zones, and even multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments. This shift has led to the emergence of new database systems designed specifically for distributed deployments, while some existing systems have adapted by incorporating distributed architectural components. The article explores the current landscape of distributed databases, examining both SQL and NoSQL systems, and highlights the top contenders such as PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, MongoDB, Redis, and ScyllaDB. It assesses these systems based on their clustering capabilities, replication models, and topology awareness, noting that CockroachDB and ScyllaDB provide the most comprehensive feature sets for SQL and NoSQL databases respectively. The discussion underscores the lack of a universal standard for distributed databases, emphasizing the ongoing evolution within the industry to enhance flexibility, performance, and resilience of these systems.