Data Driver

Blog archive

SQL to NoSQL to NewSQL? Come on!

Earlier this month there were several articles published about the term "NewSQL" coined by the 451 Group in regard to a new class of vendors of high-performance, scalable database examined in its new report. The group explains the meaning of the term in a post hawking the report. And ReadWriteWeb has expounded on the subject.

I wonder, is this stuff really necessary? Or is it just a backlash that can be viewed as part of a repeating pattern concerning traditional, established technologies, as Andrew J. Brust posited in a thoughtful piece about the NoSQL movement earlier this week. He wrote:

"So if older technologies are proven technologies, and if they can be repurposed to function like some of the newer ones, what causes such discomfort with them? Is it mere folly of younger developers? Are older developers building up barriers of vocabulary, APIs and accumulated, sometimes seldom used, features in their products, to keep their club an exclusive one?"

Anyway, the 451 Group noted that "like NoSQL, NewSQL is not to be taken too literally: the new thing about the NewSQL vendors is the vendor, not the SQL."

So, does that help clear things up? Personally, I don't want a new acronym that describes vendors, not technologies.

I hereby officially launch the NoNewSQL movment. It's all about encouraging enterprises to take advantage of cutting-edge, anti-acronym technologies in order to leverage market trends and forces to enhance business value while increasing ROI... .

What do you think? Enough with the SQL acronyms? Comment here or drop me a line.

Posted by David Ramel on 04/28/2011


comments powered by Disqus

Featured

  • Hands On with GitHub Copilot App Technical Preview: Turning a Blazor Issue into a PR

    GitHub's brand-new Copilot desktop app, in technical preview, handled a small Blazor issue from planning through pull request creation, but the hands-on test also showed why developers still need to verify agent work in the running app before merging.

  • At Build 2026, Microsoft Sets Up Windows as an OS for AI Agents

    Microsoft's Build 2026 Windows developer announcements point to a broader platform strategy for agentic AI, spanning terminal workflows, local models, app-building skills, Cloud PCs and operating system-level containment.

  • Slammed by Copilot Usage-Based Billing on Day 1, Facing $180 Bill for June

    A journalist using GitHub Copilot Pro details how a broken editorial workflow on day one of usage-based billing led to runaway token consumption, a projected $180 monthly bill, and practical tactics for cutting AI credit burn.

  • AdaBoost.R2 Regression Using C#

    AdaBoost.R2 regression works by building an ensemble of decision trees, training them on reweighted data, and combining their predictions with a weighted median, while also showing how parameter choices affect accuracy and overfitting.

Subscribe on YouTube