Stay Alert To Database Technology Innovation

Growth in the volume and pace of business is driving new application and data requirements that are often well beyond the design limits of existing relational database technologies. These include scaling databases beyond tens or hundreds of terabytes and millions of users, supporting flexible schemas for new applications such as social media and real-time analytics, and storing unstructured data in an optimum manner. Specialized databases such as key-value stores, graph databases, document databases, XML databases, multivalue stores, and mobile databases are offering new ways to fill the gaps where relational technology still lags. Relational databases will ultimately innovate to deliver higher degrees of automation, improved performance, and scale as well as to support larger volumes of unstructured data. Although this innovation will suffice for many applications, a significant number of applications can benefit today from using these newer specialized, nonrelational databases. Application developers should now seriously consider these new types of databases, especially when supporting unique, complex, or extreme applications.