Here Comes The No-NoSQL Movement
There's a new kid on the block: VoltDB, a "next-generation" DBMS released yesterday that's the brainchild of database pioneer and brilliant iconoclast Mike Stonebraker.
Or maybe it should characterized as a new sheriff in town, because this newcomer to the database market has some serious backing, stemming from a joint project by MIT, Brown University, Yale University and HP Labs.
VoltDB is an open-source, in-memory OLTP database system designed to handle serious transaction numbers in gaming, SaaS, financial, online and other high-performance systems.
And guess what? In addition to eschewing more traditional relational models, VoltDB is also spurning the NoSQL movement. It even accommodates SQL. Parent company VoltDB LLC said that "unlike NoSQL key-value stores, VoltDB can be accessed using SQL and ensures transactional data integrity (ACID)."
The company's news release quoted gaming company CEO Henning Diedrich as saying "VoltDB is faster than MySQL with Memcached, and always returns valid data. It's more useful than key-value stores and even allows for cleaner SQL schemas than MySQL or Oracle."
It further stated "VoltDB has also been benchmarked against a NoSQL key-value store, and VoltDB executed a variety of key-value store workloads with equal or better performance."
In case there's any doubt about the intent of those potshots, The Register's VoltDB article is titled "Database daddy goes non-relational on NoSQL fanbois."
Ouch.
I can't wait to see how the "fanbois" react to this.
Take a look at this supposed game-changer and get back to me with your opinion. Is it revolutionary? Is it a flash-in-the-pan? Who's it going to hurt the most? Comment here or send me an e-mail.
Posted by David Ramel on 05/26/2010