What is No-SQL?

Well, it’s not SQL, but that’s not a very good answer. The most interesting new No-SQL applications are about exploiting the advantages of less-schema and schemaless information modeling and this is where the true promise of No-SQL lies. SQL databases are ideal for conventional data processing where lots of regular, repetitive information must be modeled and managed but most practical information doesn’t fit this mold. Practical information is intrinsically messy and No-SQL databases can easily capture much more of the intrinsic messiness of routine practical meaning with far greater flexibility and fidelity. SQL database modeling always requires that information be reinvented in terms of set-relational schemas but No-SQL databases support a far broader range of options ranging from schemas to schemaless. Schemaless data modeling is stronger and smarter but above all far simpler since it reuses the native structures intrinsic to all practical meaning and reuse rather than reinvention routinely provides a cost and complexity improvement ranging from tenfold to a hundredfold.

Schemaless is a trend that has long been developing in the IT world due to the competitive advantages of simpler, smarter solutions. The strongly typed programming languages of the past have lost much ground to new scripting languages with softer dimensional and dynamic typing because these are often advantageous for writing simpler, smarter code that provides much more application value. In just the same way No-SQL databases provide a range of information modeling choices for coping with the specific challenges of a given solution so it’s no longer necessary to shoehorn the great diversity of practical information structures into one-size-fits-all SQL schemas.

There are many sorts of No-SQL databases including document, sparse column, key-value, and graph databases but no single sort is ideal and combinations of different sorts are increasingly common. Each sort provides a different way of moving beyond the limitations of highly regular schema-structured information modeling and the right choice depends on the native, natural schemaless structures of the information that needs to be modeled and managed.

SQL has a strong technical culture with lots of time-tested tools, techniques, and theories plus an extensive textbook, technical, and trade literature. So far No-SQL completely lacks this sort of mature culture and that’s bad for business because it’s a big barrier both to adoption and to advantageous application. IT managers are naturally weary of immature technologies and nobody ever got fired for using SQL so now a mature No-SQL technical culture is urgently required and the ideal solution is to simply borrow one that already exists. The SQL culture focuses on encoding techniques and reinventing information using set-relational structures but No-SQL requires a very different culture that focuses on editorial techniques and reusing information. Just this sort of editorial culture has been evolving for a century in the practical publishing world and it’s ideal for all aspects of No-SQL information modeling and management.

The SchemaLess.Net System is based entirely on the best tools, techniques, and traditions of this mature publishing culture where schemaless structured information modeling has been routine for a century. Both Total Recall search and Open Practical English are optimized for schemaless information modeling and both provide strong and smart yet simple solutions for sharing and searching all kinds of practical information at Internet scale. These are solutions that require only routine publishing skills rather than programming skills so everyone is already an expert.

The Schemaless.Net System conveniently unifies all the different sorts of No-SQL databases providing a single set of models, methods, and mindsets suitable to all. Open Practical English provides a single medium with modular modeling that can easily be partitioned across diverse sorts of No-SQL databases and Total Recall search supports mass federation of schemaless searching across diverse SQL and No-SQL databases.

What is No-SQL? It’s schemaless information management for the Internet age that provides many new kinds of competitive solution advantages due to superior publishing automation tools and techniques that are substantially simpler, stronger, and smarter than SQL.