NewSQL: What the hype is all about

NewSQL Origins

For decades, relational database or SQL was the reigning data management standard in enterprises all over the world. With the advent of Big Data and cloud-based storage rose the need for a faster, more flexible and scalable data management system, which didn’t necessarily comply with the SQL standards of ACID compliance. This was popularly dubbed as NoSQL, and databases like MongoDB, Neo4j, and others gained prominence in no time.

We can attribute the emergence and eventual adoption of NoSQL databases to a couple of very important factors. The high costs and lack of flexibility of the traditional relational databases drove many SQL users away. Also, NoSQL databases are mostly open source, and their enterprise versions are comparatively cheaper too. They are schema-less meaning they can be used to manage unstructured data effectively. In addition, they can scale well horizontally - i.e. you could add more machines to increase computing power and use it to handle high volumes of data. All these features of NoSQL come with an important tradeoff, however - these systems can’t simultaneously ensure total consistency.

Of late, there has been a rise in another type of database systems, with the aim to combine ‘the best of both the worlds’. Popularly dubbed as ‘NewSQL’, this system promises to combine the relational data model of SQL and the scalability and speed of NoSQL.

NewSQL - The dark horse in the databases race

NewSQL is ‘SQL on Steroids’, say many. This is mainly because all NewSQL systems start with the relational data model and the SQL query language, but also incorporate the features that have led to the rise of NoSQL - addressing the issues of scalability, flexibility, and high performance. They offer the assurance of ACID transactions like in the relational models. However, what makes them really unique is that they allow the horizontal scaling functionality of NoSQL, and can process large volumes of data with high performance and reliability. This is why businesses really like the concept of NewSQL - the performance of NoSQL and the reliability and consistency of the SQL model, all packed in one.

To understand what the hype surrounding NewSQL is all about, it’s worth comparing NewSQL database systems with the traditional SQL and NoSQL database systems, and see where they stand out:

As we can see from the table above, NewSQL really comes through as the best when you’re dealing with larger datasets with a desire to lower performance overheads. To give you a practical example, consider an organization that has to work with a large number of short transactions, access a limited amount of data, but executes those queries repeatedly. For such organizations, a NewSQL database system would be a perfect fit.

These features are leading to the gradual growth of NewSQL systems. However, it will take some time for more industries to adopt them.

Not all NewSQL databases are created equal

Today, one has a host of NewSQL solutions to choose from. Some popular solutions are Clustrix, MemSQL, VoltDB and CockroachDB.  Cloud Spanner, the latest NewSQL offering by Google, became generally available in February 2017 - indicating Google’s interest in the NewSQL domain and the value a NewSQL database can offer to their existing cloud offerings.

It is important to understand that there are significant differences among these various NewSQL solutions. As such you should choose a NewSQL solution carefully after evaluating your organization’s data requirements and problems. As this article on Dataconomy points out, while some databases handle transactional workloads well, they do not offer the benefit of native clustering - SAP HANA is one such example. NuoDB focuses on cloud deployments, but its overall throughput is found to be rather sub-par. MemSQL is a suitable choice when it comes to clustered analytics but falls short when it comes to consistency. Thus, the choice of the database purely depends on the task you want to do, and what trade-offs you are ready to allow without letting it affect your workflow too much.

DBAs and Programmers in the NewSQL world

Regardless of which database system an enterprise adopts, the role of DBAs will continue to be important going forward. Core database administration and maintenance tasks such as backup, recovery, replication, etc. will need to be taken care of. The major challenge for the NewSQL DBAs will be in choosing and then customizing the right database solution that fits the organizational requirements. Some degree of capacity planning and overall database administration skills might also have to be recalibrated.

Likewise, NewSQL database programmers may find themselves dealing with data manipulation and querying tasks similar to those faced while working with traditional database systems. But NewSQL programmers will be doing these tasks at a much larger, or shall we say, at a more ‘distributed’ scale.

In conclusion

When it comes to solving a particular problem related to data management, it’s often said that 80% of the solution comes down to selecting the right tool, and 20% is about understanding the problem at hand! In order to choose the right database system for your organization, you must ask yourself these two questions:

• What is the nature of the data you will work with?
• What are you willing to trade-off? In other words, how important are factors such as the scalability and performance of the database system?

For example, if you primarily work with mostly transactional data with a priority on high performance and high scalability, then NewSQL databases might fit your bill just perfectly. If you’re going to work with volatile data, NewSQL might help you there as well, however, there are better NoSQL solutions to tackle your data problem. As we have seen earlier, NewSQL databases have been designed to combine the advantages and power of both relational and NoSQL systems. It is important to know that NewSQL databases are not designed to replace either NoSQL or SQL relational models. They are rather intentionally-built alternatives for data processing, which mask the flaws and shortcomings of both relational and nonrelational database systems.

The ultimate goal of NewSQL is to deliver a high performance, highly available solution to handle modern data, without compromising on data consistency and high-speed transaction capabilities.