Databases Unveiled: From Relational to NoSQL Databases come in different shapes. Relational databases use tables, rows, and fixed schemas. They rely on SQL for queries and support strong consistency through ACID transactions. NoSQL databases offer flexible models for modern apps, large data volumes, and varied access patterns. They trade some consistency for scalability and speed, often using horizontal scaling across many servers.
Relational databases
Structured data with clear relationships Strong consistency and complex queries Useful joins to connect related records NoSQL families NoSQL databases come in several families. Document stores like MongoDB store JSON-like documents you can evolve over time. Key-value stores focus on simple, fast lookups. Column-family stores such as Cassandra handle large write loads and wide rows. Graph databases like Neo4j model relationships directly and help with network queries. In practice, many teams use a mix, keeping core transactions in SQL and freeing unstructured data to NoSQL. Some teams use hybrid architectures, combining relational stores for core transactions with NoSQL for logs, sessions, and analytics. Many NoSQL systems offer eventual consistency, trading strictness for faster writes and global availability.
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