In yesterday’s blog post, we learned about the importance of relational databases. Today, we will take a closer look at a concept called NewSQL and its relevance in the world of SQL Server.
NewSQL stands for new scalable and high-performance SQL database vendors. Unlike traditional relational databases, the products offered by NewSQL vendors are designed to be horizontally scalable. This means that they can handle large amounts of data and high traffic loads by distributing the workload across multiple nodes.
NewSQL is not a specific type of database, but rather a term used to describe vendors who support emerging data products with relational database properties, such as ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) compliance and transaction support, while also providing high performance.
The term “NewSQL” was coined by Matthew Aslett, an analyst at 451 Group, in a blog post. Aslett defines NewSQL as the various new scalable/high-performance SQL database vendors. He explains that the term “NewSQL” is not meant to be taken literally, but rather to highlight the new vendors in the market who combine the principles of SQL and NoSQL to provide both reliability and speed.
There are three major categories of NewSQL:
- New Architecture: In this framework, each node owns a subset of the data, and queries are split into smaller queries to be sent to nodes for processing. Examples of databases in this category include NuoDB, Clustrix, and VoltDB.
- MySQL Engines: These are highly optimized storage engines for SQL with the interface of MySQL. Examples of databases in this category include InnoDB and Akiban.
- Transparent Sharding: This system automatically splits the database across multiple nodes, allowing for seamless scalability.
In summary, NewSQL databases combine the reliability of traditional SQL databases with the scalability and performance of NoSQL databases. They are designed to handle large amounts of data and high traffic loads, making them ideal for modern applications that require both speed and reliability.
In tomorrow’s blog post, we will discuss the role of cloud computing in big data and how it complements the capabilities of NewSQL databases.