Sql vs NO-SQL database differences explained

SQL vs NoSQL Database Differences Explained
with few Example DB
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Most of you are already familiar with SQL database, and have a
good knowledge on either MySQL, Oracle, or other SQL databases.
In the last several years, NoSQL database is getting widely adopted
to solve various business problems.
It is helpful to understand the difference between SQL and NoSQL
database, and some of available NoSQL database that you can play
around with.
SQL vs NoSQL: High-Level Differences
▪ SQL databases are primarily called as Relational Databases
(RDBMS); whereas NoSQL database are primarily called as
non-relational or distributed database.
▪ SQL databases are table based databases whereas NoSQL
databases are document based, key-value pairs, graph
databases or wide-column stores. This means that SQL
databases represent data in form of tables which consists of
n number of rows of data whereas NoSQL databases are the
collection of key-value pair, documents, graph databases or
wide-column stores which do not have standard schema
definitions which it needs to adhered to.

▪ SQL databases have predefined schema whereas NoSQL
databases have dynamic schema for unstructured data.
▪ SQL databases are vertically scalable whereas the NoSQL
databases are horizontally scalable. SQL databases are scaled
by increasing the horse-power of the hardware. NoSQL
databases are scaled by increasing the databases servers in
the pool of resources to reduce the load.
▪ SQL databases uses SQL ( structured query language ) for
defining and manipulating the data, which is very powerful.
In NoSQL database, queries are focused on collection of
documents. Sometimes it is also called as UnQL
(Unstructured Query Language). The syntax of using UnQL
varies from database to database.
▪ SQL database examples: MySql, Oracle, Sqlite, Postgres and MS-SQL.
NoSQL database examples: MongoDB, BigTable, Redis,
RavenDb, Cassandra, Hbase, Neo4j and CouchDb
▪ For complex queries: SQL databases are good fit for the complex
query intensive environment whereas NoSQL databases are
not good fit for complex queries. On a high-level, NoSQL
don’t have standard interfaces to perform complex queries,
and the queries themselves in NoSQL are not as powerful as
SQL query language.
▪ For the type of data to be stored: SQL databases are not best fit
for hierarchical data storage. But, NoSQL database fits better
for the hierarchical data storage as it follows the key-value
pair way of storing data similar to JSON data. NoSQL

database are highly preferred for large data set (i.e for big
data). Hbase is an example for this purpose.
▪ For scalability: In most typical situations, SQL databases are
vertically scalable. You can manage increasing load by
increasing the CPU, RAM, SSD, etc, on a single server. On the
other hand, NoSQL databases are horizontally scalable. You
can just add few more servers easily in your NoSQL database
infrastructure to handle the large traffic.
▪ For high transactional based application: SQL databases are best
fit for heavy duty transactional type applications, as it is more
stable and promises the atomicity as well as integrity of the
data. While you can use NoSQL for transactions purpose, it is
still not comparable and sable enough in high load and for
complex transactional applications.
▪ For support: Excellent support are available for all SQL database
from their vendors. There are also lot of independent
consultations who can help you with SQL database for a very
large scale deployments. For some NoSQL database you still
have to rely on community support, and only limited outside
experts are available for you to setup and deploy your large
scale NoSQL deployments.
▪ For properties: SQL databases emphasizes on ACID properties (
Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability) whereas the
NoSQL database follows the Brewers CAP theorem (
Consistency, Availability and Partition tolerance )
▪ For DB types: On a high-level, we can classify SQL databases as

either open-source or close-sourced from commercial
vendors. NoSQL databases can be classified on the basis of
way of storing data as graph databases, key-value store
databases, document store databases, column store database
and XML databases.
SQL Database Examples
1. MySQL Community Edition
MySQL database is very popular open-source database. It is
generally been stacked with apache and PHP, although it can be
also stacked with nginx and server side javascripting using Node js.
The following are some of MySQL benefits and strengths:
▪ Replication: By replicating MySQL database across multiple nodes
the work load can be reduced heavily increasing the
scalability and availability of business application
▪ Sharding: MySQL sharding os useful when there is large no of
write operations in a high traffic website. By sharding MySQL
servers, the application is partitioned into multiple servers
dividing the database into small chunks. As low cost servers
can be deployed for this purpose, this is cost effective.
▪ Memcached as a NoSQL API to MySQL: Memcached can be used
to increase the performance of the data retrieval operations
giving an advantage of NoSQL api to MySQL server.
▪ Maturity: This database has been around for a long time and
tremendous community input and testing has gone into this

database making it very stable.
▪ Wide range of Platforms and Languages: MySql is available for all
major platforms like Linux, Windows, Mac, BSD and Solaris. It
also has connectors to languages like Node.js, Ruby, C#,
C++, C, Java, Perl, PHP and Python.
▪ Cost effectiveness: It is open source and free.
2. MS-SQL Server Express Edition
It is a powerful and user friendly database which has good
stability, reliability and scalability with support from Microsoft. The
following are some of MS-SQL benefits and strengths:
▪ Integrated Development Environment: Microsoft visual studio, Sql
Server Management Studio and Visual Developer tools
provide a very helpful way for development and increase the
developers productivity.
▪ Disaster Recovery: It has good disaster recovery mechanism
including database mirroring, fail over clustering and RAID
partitioning.
▪ Cloud back-up: Microsoft also provides cloud storage when you
perform a cloud-backup of your database
3. Oracle Express Edition
It is a limited edition of Oracle Enterprise Edition server with
certain limitations. This database is free for development and
deployment. The following are some of Oracle benefits and
strengths:

▪ Easy to Upgrade: Can be easily upgraded to newer version, or to
an enterprise edition.
▪ Wide platform support: It supports a wide range of platforms
including Linux and Windows
▪ Scalability: Although the scalability of this database is not cost
effective as MySQL server, but the solution is very reliable,
secure, easily manageable and productive.
NoSQL Database Examples
1. MongoDB
Mongodb is one of the most popular document based NoSQL
database as it stores data in JSON like documents. It is non-relational
database with dynamic schema. It has been developed
by the founders of DoubleClick, written in C++ and is currently
being used by some big companies like The New York Times,
Craigslist, MTV Networks. The following are some of MongoDB
benefits and strengths:
▪ Speed: For simple queries, it gives good performance, as all the
related data are in single document which eliminates the join
operations.
▪ Scalability: It is horizontally scalable i.e. you can reduce the
workload by increasing the number of servers in your
resource pool instead of relying on a stand alone resource.
▪ Manageable: It is easy to use for both developers and
administrators. This also gives the ability to shard database

▪ Dynamic Schema: Its gives you the flexibility to evolve your data
schema without modifying the existing data
2. CouchDB
CouchDB is also a document based NoSQL database. It stores data
in form of JSON documents. The following are some of CouchDB
benefits and strengths:
▪ Schema-less: As a member of NoSQL family, it also have dynamic
schema which makes it more flexible, having a form of JSON
documents for storing data.
▪ HTTP query: You can access your database documents using your
web browser.
▪ Conflict Resolution: It has automatic conflict detection which is
useful while in a distributed database.
▪ Easy Replication: Implementing replication is fairly straight

forward
3. Redis
Redis is another Open Source NoSQL database which is mainly
used because of its lightening speed. It is written in ANSI C
language. The following are some of Redis benefits and strengths:
▪ Data structures: Redis provides efficient data structures to an
extend that it is sometimes called as data structure server.
The keys stored in database can be hashes, lists, strings,
sorted or unsorted sets.
▪ Redis as Cache: You can use Redis as a cache by implementing
keys with limited time to live to improve the performance.
Very fast: It is consider as one of the fastest NoSQL server as it
works with the in-memory dataset.
Difference between SQL and NoSQL
: Comparision
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Ever since the buzz of NoSQL database evolved in storing data into the NoSQL databases, I
thought of exploring both the concepts to reach out to its depth. And it took me some time
to figure out things that actually lead to the evolution the NoSQL database.

Well it all comes down to the quest of providing best possible experience to the end users in
quick, real and connected way. Database developers are trying to optimize things to yield
better performance as the technology in storage department is changing drastically.
Here are some basics about SQL and
NoSQL database:
What is SQL database
Talking about SQL database, the basic concept is that, it has is Relational database. Yes!
SQL database is a relational database. So what exactly is a relational database? Relational
database strictly uses relations (frequently called as tables) to store data. A relational
database matches data by using common characteristics found in the dataset. And the
resulting group is termed as Schema.
A relation (table) in a relational database is divided into set of rows and columns. A Tuple
stands for a row in a database table that is retrieved using a query.
So how does SQL help?

SQL (Structured Query Language) is a programming language that is used to manage data
in relational database’s. Microsoft SQL server is a best example. Microsoft SQL server is a
relational database that is used to store and retrieve data by applications either on the same
computers or over the network.
Basic features of SQL server
1. A relational database is a set of tables containing data fitted into predefined categories.
2. Each table contains one or more data categories in columns.
3. Each row contains a unique instance of data for the categories defined by the columns.
4. User can access data from the database without knowing the structure of the database
table.
Limitations for SQL database
Scalability: Users have to scale relational database on powerful servers that are expensive
and difficult to handle. To scale relational database it has to be distributed on to multiple
servers. Handling tables across different servers is a chaos.
Complexity: In SQL server’s data has to fit into tables anyhow. If your data doesn’ t fit into
tables, then you need to design your database structure that will be complex and again
difficult to handle.
What is NoSQL database
In the past few years, the”one size fits all“-thinking concerning data stores has been
questioned by both, Science and web companies, which has lead to the emergence of a
great variety of alternative databases. The movement as well as the new datastores is
commonly subsumed under the term NoSQL.
The basic quality of NoSQL is that, it may not require fixed table schemas, usually avoid join
operations, and typically scale horizontally. Academic researchers typically refer to these
databases as structured storage, a term that includes classic relational databases as a
subset.
NoSQL database also trades off “ACID” (atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability).
NoSQL databases, to varying degrees, even allow for the schema of data to differ from
record to record. If there doesn’t exist schema or a t able in NoSQL, then how do you
visualize the database structure? Well here is the answer
No schema required: Data can be inserted in a NoSQL database without first defining a
rigid database schema. As a corollary, the format of the data being inserted can be changed
at any time, without application disruption. This provides immense application flexibility,
which ultimately delivers substantial business flexibility.

Auto elasticity: NoSQL automatically spreads your data onto multiple servers without
requiring application assistance. Servers can be added or removed from the data layer
without application downtime.
Integrated caching: In order to increase data through and increase the performance
advance NoSQL techniques cache data in system memory. This is in contrast to SQL
database where this has to be done using separate infrastructure.
Describing the architecture of data storage in NoSQL, there are three types of popular
NoSQL databases.
 Key-value stores. As the name implies, a key-value store is a system that stores
values indexed for retrieval by keys. These systems can hold structured or unstructured
data.
 Column- oriented databases. Rather than store sets of information in a heavily
structured table of columns and rows with uniform sized fields for each record, as is the
case with relational databases, column-oriented databases contain one extendable
column of closely related data.
 document-based stores. These databases store and organize data as collections of
documents, rather than as structured tables with uniform sized fields for each record.
With these databases, users can add any number of fields of any length to a document.
The image shows the difference between three of them.
Advantages of NoSQL database
1.) NoSQL databases generally process data faster than relational databases.
2.) NoSQL databases are also often faster because their data models are simpler.
3.) Major NoSQL systems are flexible enough to better enable developers to use the
applications in ways that meet their needs.

SQL NoSQL Comparision and Conclusion:
SQL and NoSQL has been great inventions over time in order to keep data storage and
retrieval optimized and smooth. Criticizing any one of them will not help the cause. If there
is a buzz of NoSQL these days, it doesn’t mean it is a silver bullet to all your needs. Both
technologies are best in what they do. It is up to a developer to make a better use of them
depending on the situations and needs.

Sql vs NO-SQL database differences explained

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