MongoDB under its proper context

A couple of weeks ago I attended to a CRJUG speak organized by the folks of BodyBuilding.com. In this time they gave us an introduction to the world of MongoDB, a non-sql database engine that they use in their site. I really enjoyed the loose style of the speakers. A “For programmers-by-programmers” approach. They showed us the differences of this paradigm with the traditional relational paradigm. I think they were very transparent from the beginning stating that they didn’t come in an “evangelistic mission”. They know as many do that this approach serves specific purposes. It doesn’t substitute the secure, transaction-safe, full referential integrity relational databases. Like in many things in computer science where there is this constant battle to try to balance all key aspects of a system: security, robustness, speed, etc, databases as well do not escape from this challenge.

I’m emphasizing this point for something that I found interesting during the presentation. Since there was openness at all time for questions and comments, some participants in various occasions insisted in compare this solution with standard relational database, which in principle it’s fine to point out why it’s done differently, but what I find interesting is that I detected some sort of skepticism while discussing the topics, like “I cannot believe the standard rules are being broken”. This was not said literally, I’m just describing my perception from their feedback. For example one participant commented that Oracle has some ways to attack similar problems. In other occasion there was brief argumentation of why MongoDB didn’t continue with a typical SQL language instead of using a very different query language, because after all, it would be easier for the entire developer’s community who already know SQL.

This is interesting, but not surprising. Relational  databases had been with us for more than 40 years. They are older than a lot of us. That’s why a lot of people find it a little difficult to believe that a new approach is required. Maybe it’s similar like if there was new programming language selling the idea that OOP should be dismissed. In my humble opinion I believe new paradigms experimentation is always required in order for innovation to appear. I also think we don’t have drive ourselves in a “Hispster” fashion, looking for the newest technologies and then labeling the other ones as the old fashion ones. Relational databases are too long to be entering the retiring cycle, but still we need to start considering the new guys entering the scene.

In this very funny video we see this point shown, where many people are too fast in dismissing the old technologies without having solid argumentation; just playing hipster with technology. I don’t think the video is a criticism to MongoDB, but a criticism to people who do not know the proper context of certain technologies. If you have a small start-up, you should not be worrying in the short term about scaling and use a non-sql database. Over architecting an application can cause more problems than it solves. But that’s another discussion I would like also to write about it in another moment.