Moving from Relational to NoSQL

Why use NoSQL? Innovative companies like AT&T, GE, and PayPal have successfully transitioned from relational to NoSQL for their critical web, mobile, and IoT applications. By understanding where to introduce NoSQL, how to model and access the data, and how to manage and monitor a distributed database, you can do the same. This white paper explains the need for non-relational databases, describes advantages of NoSQL, and clarifies the important difference between SQL and NoSQL databases. We walk you through: • Identifying the right application for your first NoSQL project • Approaches to generating primary keys • Examples of modeling relational data as documents • Options for performing reads and writes, queries, and aggregation • Requirements for a successful proof of concept • Tips for migrating from relational databases You’ll get detailed examples of data and code for simple to complex data models, basic key-value operations (CRUD), advanced queries via N1QL (SQL for JSON), powerful aggregation with MapReduce, and more.