Relational Databases and NoSQL Storage

Databases are needed for storing and processing data. There are relational (SQL) and NoSQL database management systems.

Relational databases (SQL)

The most common databases are relational or SQL databases, where data is stored in interconnected tables. Relational DBMSs support a transactional model of data processing, which is important for use in systems that require reliable storage and data integrity. A transaction is a set of operations that can either be performed in its entirety and successfully, or not performed at all. The transactional approach guarantees data integrity and reliable and predictable system operation.

Typical examples of SQL DBMSs are MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, and Oracle. MySQL, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL are free and are most often used for websites. MS SQL and Oracle are paid and are less commonly used in web projects, but are more often used in corporate applications.

For ordinary projects, there is no significant technical difference between which DBMS to use, but economically it is more profitable to use the most common MariaDB or PostgreSQL — there are more developers, and the cost of support and development is lower.

NoSQL databases and storage

There are also so-called NoSQL databases and storage — for example, MongoDB, CouchDB, Redis, Memcached, Cassandra, and Scylla. They are much younger than relational databases and also differ significantly from them in terms of storage structure and data handling mechanics. NoSQL DBMSs are more often used not for storing all application data, but only for solving specific tasks (logging, caching, task queues, distributed data storage) and are therefore less common in simple projects.

It is preferable to use a relational DBMS as the main storage due to its support for transactionality and overall reliability. For ordinary projects, it is reasonable to use MySQL or PostgreSQL — the difference between different relational databases is not very noticeable in simple operations. In our projects, we usually lean towards using PostgreSQL.

As a rule, the choice of platform — content management system or framework, and sometimes even programming language — already determines the choice of database for the project to some extent. Content management systems based on PHP usually only fully support MySQL/MariaDB as a database, while Microsoft products typically use a single combination, such as .NET + MS SQL. Frameworks less often dictate the choice of a specific DBMS — they usually support almost all relational database management systems.

Non-relational DBMSs are best used where their use will increase the speed of the application, but there is no need for ultra-reliable data storage.

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