A Guide to Understanding the Benefits and Drawbacks of Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, MongoDB, Redis, Apache Cassandra, Couchbase Server
A Developer’s Perspective: “We chose MongoDB for our project due to its ease of installation and compatibility with all major programming languages.”
Accordingly, here is what we consider the TOP 7 most important features to help you choose the right database system:
1. What Programming Language Do You Want To Use? (8 out of 10)
There are many reasons why developers make this decision but it mainly comes down to personal preference or corporate standards. Many organizations also use specific databases based on what they already have deployed in-house. Before you make a choice explore available connectors and see what language each database system supports as this document will not attempt to go into depth about which languages/platforms are supported for each database system.
MongoDB is one of the few databases that support many languages and platforms. For instance, if you are using PHP this guide will show. How to get started very quickly with MongoDB by installing a few components and running some SQL commands. Similarly, if you use Ruby on Rails your setup process should be effortless. As there are many community-provided configurators to automate most of the work for you. On the other hand, if you choose Oracle or PostgreSQL and decide later. That you want to use NodeJS then it may not be that simple and may require additional knowledge and base infrastructure depending on your needs.
2. What Is Your Primary Programming Language? (7 out of 10)
Most developers will already have an idea of their primary programming language. So this criterion is pretty simple. If you use Java or .NET then your choice may be dictated by what databases your organization uses already. The availability of connectors for this language. For example, many corporations will standardize on SAP Hana since it provides Java bindings.But they may require additional development resources to set up the database system initially.
3. Do You Need to Integrate With Customers On Non-Standard Platforms? (7 out of 10)
This question has little to do with the technical aspects of how easy it is to install. A database system or start coding against it. Sometimes customers are running very old versions of Operating Systems like Windows XP or they do not want to install software on their servers. In this case, you may be required to use a cloud solution because you cannot run MongoDB. Another database system locally on that machine. In other cases, developers may have integrations to third-party applications that only support certain databases systems. So this makes it very difficult for an organization when they decide to standardize on a different technology.
4. What Operating Systems Do You Need To Support? (9 out of 10)
This is one of the most important criteria for choosing a database engine because oftentimes many organizations have existing infrastructure in place and do not want to spend money duplicating setups in order to switch technologies. For example, if your current application runs on a cloud provider that only supports Windows then you will have to modify your software to run on Linux-based infrastructure before you can switch databases. In some cases, this may even require modifying your source code because of differences between the two OSs.
5. How Reliable Must Your Database Platform Be? (8 out of 10)
Reliability is a critical aspect for any database platform and especially so when you are using them in mission-critical applications or trying to meet stringent Service Level Agreements with clients. The good news is that most modern database systems are very stable but you should be cognizant of their track record before choosing one system over another. For example, Oracle has been around for decades and proven reliable time and again, but the same cannot be said for MongoDB or Cassandra which are newer technologies.
6. How Much Data Will Your Database Manage? (9 out of 10)
One of the main reasons companies may opt to use a relational database like SQL Server is because they can provide unlimited storage capacity without having to pay additional licensing fees if the amount of data stored in the database exceeds a certain threshold. This is not an issue with other types of databases and this factor should definitely be considered when making your decision.
7. Do You Need to Store and Query JSON Data? (8 out of 10)
JSON is quickly becoming one of the main formats for transmitting structured data between applications so it only makes sense that many developers want to store and query JSON data within their applications. Currently, MongoDB is the only popular database that has this capability but there are NoSQL databases like MarkLogic that can natively store and query JSON data as well.
Conclusion:
Before you make a final decision, you should set up test instances of each database engine and evaluate how easy it is to install the DBMS as well as run simple queries. For example, many developers do not like using migrations when setting up new databases because they can lead to downtime.
A Guide to Understanding the Benefits and Drawbacks of Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, MongoDB, Redis, Apache Cassandra, Couchbase Server
A Developer’s Perspective: “We chose MongoDB for our project due to its ease of installation and compatibility with all major programming languages.”
Accordingly, here is what we consider the TOP 7 most important features to help you choose the right database system:
1. What Programming Language Do You Want To Use? (8 out of 10)
There are many reasons why developers make this decision but it mainly comes down to personal preference or corporate standards. Many organizations also use specific databases based on what they already have deployed in-house. Before you make a choice explore available connectors and see what language each database system supports as this document will not attempt to go into depth about which languages/platforms are supported for each database system.
MongoDB is one of the few databases that support many languages and platforms. For instance, if you are using PHP this guide will show how to get started very quickly with MongoDB by installing a few components and running some SQL commands. Similarly, if you use Ruby on Rails your setup process should be effortless as there are many community-provided configurators to automate most of the work for you. On the other hand, if you choose Oracle or PostgreSQL and decide later that you want to use NodeJS then it may not be that simple and may require additional knowledge and base infrastructure depending on your needs.
2. What Is Your Primary Programming Language? (7 out of 10)
Most developers will already have an idea of their primary programming language, so this criterion is pretty simple. If you use Java or .NET then your choice may be dictated by what databases your organization uses already and the availability of connectors for this language. For example, many corporations will standardize on SAP Hana since it provides Java bindings but they may require additional development resources to set up the database system initially.
3. Do You Need to Integrate With Customers On Non-Standard Platforms? (7 out of 10)
This question has little to do with the technical aspects of how easy it is to install a database system or start coding against it. Sometimes customers are running very old versions of Operating Systems like Windows XP or they do not want to install software on their servers. In this case, you may be required to use a cloud solution because you cannot run MongoDB or another database system locally on that machine. In other cases, developers may have integrations to third-party applications that only support certain databases systems so this makes it very difficult for an organization when they decide to standardize on a different technology.
4. What Operating Systems Do You Need To Support? (9 out of 10)
This is one of the most important criteria for choosing a database engine because oftentimes many organizations. Have existing infrastructure in place and do not want to spend money duplicating setups in order to switch technologies. For example, if your current application runs on a cloud provider that only supports Windows. Then you will have to modify your software to run on Linux-based infrastructure. Before you can switch databases. In some cases, this may even require modifying your source code. Because of differences between the two OSs.
5. How Reliable Must Your Database Platform Be? (8 out of 10)
Reliability is a critical aspect for any database platform and especially. So when you are using them in mission-critical applications or, Trying to meet stringent Service Level Agreements with clients. The good news is that most modern database systems are very stable. But you should be cognizant of their track record before choosing one system over another. For example, Oracle has been around for decades and proven reliable time. Again, but the same cannot be said for MongoDB or Cassandra which are newer technologies.
6. How Much Data Will Your Database Manage? (9 out of 10)
One of the main reasons companies may opt to use a relational database like SQL Server is because they can provide unlimited storage capacity. Without having to pay additional licensing fees if the amount of data stored in the database exceeds a certain threshold. This is not an issue with other types of databases. This factor should definitely be considered when making your decision.
7. Do You Need to Store and Query JSON Data? (8 out of 10)
JSON is quickly becoming one of the main formats for transmitting structured data between applications. So it only makes sense that many developers want to store and query JSON data within their applications. Currently, MongoDB is the only popular database that has this capability. But there are NoSQL databases like MarkLogic that can natively store and query JSON data as well.
Conclusion:
Before you make a final decision, you should set up test instances of each database engine. Evaluate how easy it is to install the DBMS as well as run simple queries. For example, many developers do not like using migrations when setting up new databases because they can lead to downtime.
