Modern applications rely on multiple data models that generate different data types. To help such use cases, NoSQL (Not only SQL) databases allow for the storage and processing of different data types in a non-tabular fashion. NoSQL databases process unstructured data using flexible schemas to enable efficient storage and analysis for distributed, data-driven applications. By relaxing data consistency restrictions of SQL-based databases, NoSQL databases enable low latency, scalability and high performance for data access.
The performance of SQL databases varies with the cluster size, the application’s configuration and network latency. This means that developers don’t have to worry about optimizing data structures, indexes and queries to achieve peak performance from the storage subsystem. NoSQL databases are popular with modern cloud applications since they use APIs for the storage and retrieval of data structures. This makes it easy to interface NoSQL databases with a host of microservice-based applications for agile, cloud-native deployment.