Why Enterprise Nosql Matters
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White Paper Why Enterprise NoSQL Matters By Evan Quinn, Senior Principal Analyst March 2013 This ESG White Paper was commissioned by MarkLogic and is distributed under license from ESG. © 2013 by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. White Paper: Why Enterprise NoSQL Matters 2 Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 3 The Alternative to Aging Enterprise Relational Databases: NoSQL Databases ............................................ 4 Requirements for Enterprise NoSQL ............................................................................................................ 5 MarkLogic Is a Proven Candidate for Enterprise NoSQL .............................................................................. 7 The Bigger Truth ........................................................................................................................................... 8 All trademark names are property of their respective companies. Information contained in this publication has been obtained by sources The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) considers to be reliable but is not warranted by ESG. This publication may contain opinions of ESG, which are subject to change from time to time. This publication is copyrighted by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. Any reproduction or redistribution of this publication, in whole or in part, whether in hard-copy format, electronically, or otherwise to persons not authorized to receive it, without the express consent of The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc., is in violation of U.S. copyright law and will be subject to an action for civil damages and, if applicable, criminal prosecution. Should you have any questions, please contact ESG Client Relations at 508.482.0188. © 2013 by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. White Paper: Why Enterprise NoSQL Matters 3 Executive Summary The good, old-fashioned relational database, a well-understood technology with a known list of providers for two decades, has faced disruption since the turn of the millennium, and the disruption is peaking now. The rise of cloud applications, big data analytics, mobile computing, sophisticated content and asset management solutions, and social media have pushed the once dependable relational database to the edge of, and sometimes past, its abilities. Because it was originally architected to work with hardware from yesteryear, the older relational database may struggle to take optimal advantage of the dramatic price/performance improvements and innovations found in adjunct technologies like multi-core processors and storage. Add in previously inconceivable requirements for scalability, plus the still substantial margins enjoyed by long-standing enterprise database providers, and modern database buyers have found motivation to look for fresh alternatives. In the vacuum formed between older databases and new use cases, an explosion of roughly 50 new commercial and open source databases, often referred to collectively as “NoSQL databases,” have come to market. ESG prefers to interpret the term “NoSQL” to mean “Not Only SQL” given that many of the new databases do support Structured Query Language (SQL). But suffice it to say that pent-up demand to better address post-2000 use cases has produced a throng of new database choices. Yet therein lies another, ironic, challenge for the database buyer: too much choice. Fortunately, if you require enterprise-class features in a NoSQL database, the number of choices shrinks to a few, and MarkLogic stands out as a clear leader in the “Enterprise NoSQL” category. “Enterprise NoSQL” means a database designed to deal with modern, post-2000 application use cases that also has the features to support enterprise-grade compliance; transaction processing; tools for DBAs and administrators; 24x365 availability; scalability adapting to multiple cost-effective hardware choices; and APIs and connectors for a wide variety of third-party services wanted by developers. The shorter definition: Security, policy management, availability, scalability, ACID, DBA and administrator tools, connectors and APIs. An even shorter definition: Enterprise NoSQL is a NoSQL database you would bet your business on—a database like MarkLogic. The MarkLogic database moves easily between the schema-less approach used for advanced web, rich content, and document solutions, as well as full ACID transaction processing. Its native shared-nothing architecture enables near- linear scalability across a wide variety of hardware choices, including “commodity hardware.” Its government- certified security and policy management enable fine-grained access, data privacy, and retention control. It offers a variety of high availability approaches—versus only one—for both shared disk implementations as well as shared- nothing that includes point-in-time recovery. And MarkLogic’s administration tools are API-based, offering the flexibility to fit into existing workflows and consoles, with prebuilt integration to several popular systems management tools. MarkLogic also offers specific solutions that address multi-national class needs, such as a “big data search” with support for over 200 languages, and metadata repositories used by some of the world’s largest media organizations. In the big data arena, MarkLogic offers optimized connectors to leading big data platform and visualization tools such as Hadoop, Tableau Software, and IBM Cognos. Between its true enterprise-class database capabilities, and its wide range of proven solutions, MarkLogic belongs on the short list of those database buyers who are interested in NoSQL, but not willing to sacrifice the features needed by enterprises. © 2013 by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. White Paper: Why Enterprise NoSQL Matters 4 The Alternative to Aging Enterprise Relational Databases: NoSQL Databases The relational databases enterprises have depended on for over two decades for nearly all applications are being replaced by a newer set of databases that offer data models and features more finely tuned to post-2000 applications. Given the growth of data—managing data growth rated as the number four most important IT priority reported by respondents in ESG’s recent IT spending intention survey—and pressure on costs—cost reduction initiatives rated as the number one business priority for IT cited by organizations in the same survey (see Figure 1)—the well-known lofty prices of enterprise databases have contributed to interest for alternative databases.1 The high cost of classic enterprise databases, however, isn’t just about price. Relational databases were not originally designed for the rich and pervasive content of today’s collaboration, social media, and mobile applications. The older relational model struggles with the complex queries and compute requirements associated with advanced data analytics. Thus, many of the leading business initiatives that need IT’s help today don’t marry well with the long-standing enterprise relational database, and those organizations that choose to stick with older relational models literally pay for their choice by throwing more hardware at the issue, and using workarounds. Figure 1. 2013 Business Initiatives with the Greatest Impact on IT Spending Decisions Which of the following business initiatives do you believe will have the greatest impact on your organization's IT spending decisions over the next 12-18 months? (Percent of respondents, N=540, three responses accepted) Cost reduction initiatives 44% Business process improvement initiatives 31% Security/risk management initiatives 31% Regulatory compliance 25% Providing our employees with the mobile devices and 24% applications they need to maximize productivity 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, 2013 NoSQL databases have stepped in as the alternatives to legacy enterprise databases. While the implication of NoSQL infers a lack of query language or data structure, in fact the dozens of NoSQL databases available in the market cover a wide range of query approaches and data models, thus “NoSQL” really means “not only SQL.” Regardless, most NoSQL databases not only offer data models lined up with more recent application types, but they are also typically designed natively to take advantage of advances in in-memory computing, storage, and virtualized infrastructures including clouds. Speed and scalability, across a variety of deployment choices, are often calling cards of NoSQL databases. 1 Source: ESG Research Report, 2013 IT Spending Intentions Survey, January 2013. © 2013 by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. White Paper: Why Enterprise NoSQL Matters 5 Yet, ESG is not comfortable recommending all NoSQL databases to enterprises and large organizations. Several of the primary reasons for ESG’s reticence are spelled out in Figure 2, which lists the most important IT priorities reported by respondents to ESG’s recent survey. Many priorities are related to security and compliance, and few NoSQL databases measure up to enterprise-class needs, and even fewer meet government required security and compliance requirements. But enterprise-class requirements do not end at security and compliance for NoSQL databases. The interest in virtualization, cloud, and private cloud suggests the need for scalability across variable and elastic infrastructures. Data backup, recovery, and business continuity