Should you go beyond relational databases?

Published by Martin Kleppmann on 24 Jun 2009.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to meet the excellent Ryan Carson, the man behind the Carsonified conferences like Future of Web Apps. We got chatting about the future of databases, and what lies beyond the relational model, and in the end Ryan asked me to write an article for ThinkVitamin, a widely-read blog for web professionals.

Relational databases, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL and various commercial products, have served us well for many years. Lately, however, there has been a lot of discussion on whether the relational model is reaching the end of its life-span, and what may come after it.

Should you care? Which database technology should you be using?

Of course the answer is “it depends”, but that’s not very helpful. Let me ask you a few questions to help you figure out which technology is appropriate to your particular application. Then I can give a few pointers so that you can find out more.

I am pleased that it is now published, so please head over to ThinkVitamin for the full story, and let me know your thoughts!