Introduction
Database management systems are programs that manage data storage, retrieval, and updating. Structured Query Language (SQL) and Non Structured Query Language (NoSQL) are the two most used kinds of database administration. SQL is a language for interacting with databases. It allows a user to manage the data requested in the system (Agarwal & Rajan, 2017). SQL is a programming language that is commonly used in relational database management systems. In the case of SQL, the schemes are static. SQL is useful for creating sophisticated queries (Agarwal & Rajan, 2017). Non SQL is horizontally scalable, which means that it can handle increased traffic by adding more servers. Therefore, this paper will major in the comparison of SQL and NoSQL databases.
SQL Description
SQL is a programming language for extracting data from and inserting it into a relational database. Queries consist of commands that allow one to select, insert, update, and locate data. It is considered one of the most in-demand skills in today’s industry because data is collected daily (Agarwal & Rajan, 2017). SQL database has distinct characteristics that make it different from NoSQL. It is known for its high-performance programming for big workloads and its high transactional and database utilization. It is widely accessible because it is everywhere and high in demand. SQL is compatible with various databases, including Microsoft SQL and MySQL (Corbellini et al., 2017). It is also easy to construct an application extension using SQL.
Pros of SQL Database
SQL has several advantages that make it popular and high in demand. It is a dependable and efficient language for interacting with databases. The SQL database management system is easy to use, and it does not require or present many challenges while storing data (Venkatraman et al., 2016). The data from the database record can be retrieved at an extremely fast rate. With SQL queries, a user can effectively and quickly retrieve a large amount of data from a database. The other factor that makes SQL attractive to developers is that it does not adhere to well-defined standards and is code-free (Mohmmed & Osman, 2017). The SQL database is easy to manage because it does not require much code.
Cons of SQL Database
Even though SQL has many advantages, there are some disadvantages. SQL has a complex interface that makes users uncomfortable while dealing with the database. It takes more than a few lines of code to connect to a SQL database (Venkatraman et al., 2016). Also, as they become more popular, the amount of data stored grows, necessitating a great deal of flexibility, which does not exist in the SQL database management system. Another disadvantage of this technique is that it is extremely costly (Mohmmed & Osman, 2017). The expenses required to set up the SQL system are high. These disadvantages make SQL undesirable to some of the users.
NoSQL Description
NoSQL is a non-relational database that uses key-value pairs to store and retrieve data. A NoSQL stores each item separately with a unique key, rather than in rows and columns like a conventional database (Corbellini et al., 2017). The database also does not need a formal schema that defines each table and its associated columns. This gives the database more flexibility than a relational database when it comes to storing data. Using a NoSQL database allows for greater storage flexibility because the data does not need to be normalized to conserve disk space (Corbellini et al., 2017). The concept of merging records from different tables is not so fundamental, and other distinguishing aspects include improved scalability, distributed computing, cost-effectiveness, and linkages in this database, are not complex.
Pros of NoSQL Database
NoSQL database has various advantages that make it attractive to some users. One benefit that NoSQL has over SQL is its flexibility. This implies that it can maintain and handle data in a way that is less complicated when a large amount of data is involved (Corbellini et al., 2017). Because this database system falls under the non-relational database management system, it is relatively simple to manage. The other advantage of NoSQL is the fact that it is horizontally rather than vertically scalable. A user can only increase SQL hardware by buying high-end and more expensive components like CPUs and RAM (Mohmmed & Osman, 2017). With NoSQL, this is not an issue because a user can add another shard, and the system will scale. In comparison to SQL, this makes NoSQL expansion extremely cheap and simple.
Cons of NoSQL Database
Apart from the advantages, there are various cons experienced with the use of NoSQL. The main disadvantage is that NoSQL is not as mature as SQL. SQL has had more investment, time and effort poured into it than NoSQL (Mohmmed & Osman, 2017). Based on this, SQL is much more advanced than NoSQL. Users pay less attention to NoSQL than they do to SQL database management systems. This database management system also lacks a standards platform, making it less likely to expand further (Mohmmed & Osman, 2017). Another disadvantage of NoSQL database management systems is that they lack reliability capabilities.
Key Differences Between SQL and NoSQL Database
Conclusion
Deciding which one among SQL and NoSQL is better is a challenge. In different scenarios, both SQL and NoSQL offer advantages as well as downsides. Because SQL databases are relational, they have the advantages of vertical scalability and excellent consistency. Because SQL databases place a premium on consistency, the database management system demands a lot of work to keep the database in a consistent state, which will inevitably slow down performance. Because NoSQL databases are supposed to be flexible and fast, they have less constraint than SQL databases because the overhead of consistency is reduced. Therefore, SQL and NoSQL can be effective to some and not to others.
References
Agarwal, S., & Rajan, K. S. (2017). Analyzing the performance of NoSQL vs. SQL databases for Spatial and Aggregate queries. In Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings, 17 (1), 1-10.
Corbellini, A., Mateos, C., Zunino, A., Godoy, D., & Schiaffino, S. (2017). Persisting big-data: The NoSQL landscape. Information Systems, 63, 1-23.
Mohmmed, A. G. M., & Osman, S. E. F. (2017). Study on SQL vs. NoSQL vs. NewSQL. Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science Studies, 3(6), 1821-1823.
Raut, A. B. (2017). NoSQL database and its comparison with RDBMS. International Journal of Computational Intelligence Research, 13(7), 1645-1651.
Venkatraman, S., Fahd, K., Kaspi, S., & Venkatraman, R. (2016). SQL versus NoSQL movement with big data analytics. International Journal Information Technology and Computer Science, 8, 59-66.