Benefits of NoSQL databases

Schema agnostic

Scalability Performance High availability Global availability

Types of NoSQL databases

1. Key-value store NoSQL database

Use cases: Here are some popular use cases of the key-value databases:

For storing user session data

Maintaining schema-less user profiles

Storing user preferences

Storing shopping cart data

However key-value databases are not the ideal choice for every use case when:

We have to query the database by specific data value.

We need relationships between data values.

We need to operate on multiple unique keys.

Our business needs updating a part of the value frequently.

Examples of this database are Redis, MemcacheDB and Riak.

2.Document store NoSQL database

This structured/semi-structured value is referred to as a document and can be in XML, JSON or BSON format.

Use cases: Document store databases are preferable for:

E-commerce platforms

Content management systems

Analytics platforms

Blogging platforms

Examples of document store NoSQL databases are MongoDB, Apache CouchDB and Elasticsearch.

3.Column store NoSQL database

As an example, we often access customers’ names and profile information at the same time, but not the information on their orders.

The main advantages of storing data in columns over relational DBMS are fast search/access and data aggregation.

Use cases: Developers mainly use column databases in:

Content management systems

Blogging platforms

Systems that maintain counters

Services that have expiring usage

Systems that require heavy write requests (like log aggregators)

Examples of column store NoSQL databases are Cassandra and Apache Hadoop Hbase.

4.Graph base NoSQL database

Use cases: Graph base NoSQL databases are usually used in:

Fraud detection

Graph based search

Network and IT operations

Social networks, etc

Examples of graph base NoSQL databases are Neo4j, ArangoDB and OrientDB.