Why are NoSQL Databases Becoming Transactional?

The emerging transactional NoSQL market is driven by the need for simpler, faster, and more resilient application development, deployment, and operations, particularly in internet-scale, user-facing applications that require high performance, geo-distribution, and strong consistency. This shift is also due to the increasing adoption of distributed SQL databases, which are becoming more transactional as well. Transactional NoSQL databases like Amazon DynamoDB, Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, FaunaDB, MongoDB, FoundationDB, and TiKV are embracing ACID transactions, offering a compromise between scalability and consistency, and providing a common database core for building multiple database APIs. The market is driven by the need to reduce engineering pain, increase application release velocity, and avoid additional licensing costs associated with monolithic SQL/RDBMS.