NoSQL, Heroku, and You

Yes, we are running MongoHQ with Heroku and so far, it's been great. Tool-wise, not great, but been told that it will get better.

Yup. For a social web app.. using PostgreSQL for high-value, low-volume authoritative data and MongoDB for high-volume, low-value non-authoritative data (like news feed items). Works like a charm.

EngineYard did a series of 6 that goes a bit more in-depth, their blog nav sucks though so just use this:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:engineyard.com+%22key-va...

Honestly there aren't any really great comparisons because the people with the really in-depth knowledge about one db or another tend not to have the same depth in the others. Plus there's the fanboy quotient adding to the hype, which initially was really turning me off to the whole NoSQL meme.

More recently though I've decided that I can't let the ignorant hype distract me from discovering the real value. In general I still think most apps probably need some kind of relational database (and generally I consider a relational DB a nice hedge against changing requirements), but I'm also spending quite a bit of time on optimizing my own app and it's amazing how certain alternative data stores offer primitives to billiantly pick off real world bottlenecks cropping up in a traditional SQL DB.

So for me the best way to approach it has been by looking through the prism of real world problems.

I was thinking the same thing. I would kill for a detailed analysis of the benefits and trade-offs between the widely different database solutions callously thrown into the single moniker of 'NoSQL'. Heaven knows such articles are/were frequent when comparing various SQL database engines.

This round up is fairly accurate. One thing worth mentioning is that all of these tools can be bent to be used outside their comfort zone (just like an RDBMS) so you don't have to have a stack of 5 different databases, if you enjoy getting the job done with one.

I am not an expert with NoSQL, but from my limited research, this all seems pretty correct and in-line with what I've read about each particular software.

Not that I'd expect anything less out of Heroku.

I don't think people consider it a dup when this one has the votes and the other one doesn't. I do agree it is bizarre when a story is submitted multiple times and the latter of the two (or more) "makes" it.

As far as the write-up goes, very good overview of NoSQL choices and some high-level ideas of when to use each option.