• Introduction
• The Problem with the Relational Database (Part 1 ) –The Deployment Model

I met with a friend of mine in New York recently who runs a credit card processing end-point company.  They specifically built their business around a non-relational database platform and feel they would have major issues had they chosen to build their business around a traditional …

• Introduction
• The Problem with the Relational Database (Part 2) – Predictability

This is the first detail post in a series I am doing focusing on the issues that exist today with the Relational Database.  This first post is on the deployment model.  It could be argued that this isn’t directly related to the “relational database” but rather is an implementation model problem.  I disagree with this as many characteristics of the relational database lead to the deployment model …

• The Problem with the Relational Database (Part 1 ) –The Deployment Model
• The Problem with the Relational Database (Part 2) – Predictability

The relational database has been the core mechanism for structured data storage and retrieval for the past 30 years.  My career so far has focused around the relational database, whether it be from a development, administrator or investment perspective.  In all this time the RDB has been the best generic option available for developers …

Recently, a lot of new non-relational databases have cropped up both inside and outside the cloud. One key message this sends is, "if you want vast, on-demand scalability, you need a non-relational database".

If that is true, then is this a sign that the once mighty relational database finally has a chink in its armor? Is this a sign that relational databases have had their day and will decline over time? In this post, we'll look at the current trend of moving away from relational databases in certain situations and what this means for the future of the relational database.[more]

So it’s that time of year again when everyone puts out their predictions for the year ahead.  I think predictions are a bit of a waste of time because to be interesting predictions have to be big, but a year really isn’t all that long so actual changes over the course of 2009 are likely to be just small progressions.  So instead I have been thinking about the top issues that we face heading into 2009 and here is my Top 10 list for issues in Data Management.  In this post I avoid offering solutions to these issues, while I have several ideas on solutions these can be the subject of subsequent posts.

10 - Limits on Scalability

While scalability is on my list it is at number 10 because against popular belief, scalability is only an issue for a very small number of data based applications.  Almost all data based applications in use today can be scaled without major issue by increasing the underlying …