Category Archives: NoSQL

[Video 307] Rene Schmidt: Taking Storage for a Ride with Uber

How does Uber store its data? Uber uses MySQL, a popular open-source relational database.  But it also uses a NoSQL system known as “schemaless,” which is an append-only system that takes a functional approach to data. How does this work, and how did Uber come to decide on it for their storage needs? How does this system scale at a company that’s growing at such a phenomenal rate? And what does the future hold for Uber’s “schemaless” system?  In this talk, Rene Schmidt addresses all of these questions and issues, describing the types of messages that Uber sends and stores, and the ways in which schemaless has helped them succeed as a company.

[Video 270] Jamey Hanson: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em (a pun)

SQL vs. NoSQL has become a huge war, in some ways. Which is better? The answer is, of course, “it depends.”  Each has its advantages and disadvantages. But PostgreSQL, which is becoming more of a platform than just a database, now offers us ways to combine SQL and NoSQL documents into the same database model. How does this work? When and why would we want to do this? In this talk, Jamey Hanson gives us a number of examples of how, when, and why combining SQL and NoSQL is both possible and preferable.

[Video 215] Micah Yoder: PostgreSQL’s JSONB

In recent years, PostgreSQL has gained a number of facilities that were normally associated with NoSQL databases, such as a key-value store and JSON support. In the latest (9.4) release, the JSONB data type brought high performance and many new features. In this talk, Micah Yoder describes the JSONB data type, how it can be used from within SQL, how its performance compares with MongoDB, and how such features can be used from within Python.

[Video 205] Vibhor Kumar: The NoSQL Way in PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is obviously a relational database. (The “SQL” in its name sorta gives that away.)  But PostgreSQL has, over the last few versions, added a growing number of features normally associated with NoSQL. In this talk, Vibhor Kumar describes some of the latest NoSQL features to be added and improved in PostgreSQL, , including the Hstore key-value storage and the JSONB storage type.

Baron Schwartz: MySQL, SQL, NoSQL, and Open Source in 2014 and Beyond

Databases are a major factor in modern applications. There are at least two major axes along which you have to decide when choosing a database: SQL vs. NoSQL, and open source vs. proprietary. What considerations should you keep in mind when choosing? Baron Schwartz, who has long been active in the MySQL community and is the author of numerous blog posts and a book about MySQL performance tuning, gave this talk at Google in February 2014, in which he discussed the considerations that go into database choices. Even if you prefer a different database, it’s useful and interesting to hear the considerations that a MySQL veteran brings to the table, and how he sees the current state of the database world.

Andy Gross: Riak and Dynamo, Five Years Later

In 2007, Amazon published a paper about “Dynamo,” a high-availability storage system. A number of NoSQL databases were created based on this paper and paradigm, with great success. One of them is Riak, a distributed, open-source NoSQL key-value store developed by Basho. In this talk, Andy Gross (who was then chief architect of Riak) describes Dynamo, Riak, and where things stood in 2012 (i.e., 2.5 years ago) in contrast with the original Amazon paper. While Riak has advanced since then, this talk introduces both Dynamo and Riak, and how we can think about distributed systems.

Martin Fowler: Introduction to NoSQL

NoSQL” is a term that is frequently used nowadays. But what does “NoSQL” mean, and what kinds of databases does this term include? How are they different (if at all) from object databases? What problems have people experienced with relational databases, which led to the development of NoSQL databases?  In this talk, Martin Fowler introduces the history and development of NoSQL databases, and describes the different types of such systems that exist, along with their relative advantages and disadvantages.

Josh Owens: What I’ve learned during my year with Meteor.js

Meteor is a new type of Web framework — one that bridges the gap between client and server, uses a single language on both, and allows for real-time communication between them. In this talk, Meteor developer Josh Owens introduces Meteor, and describes what he has learned (sometimes the hard way) from using this framework.