Will NoSQL Databases Live Up to Their Promise?

Many organizations collect vast amounts of customer, scientific, sales, and other data for future analysis. Traditionally, most of these organizations have stored structured data in relational databases for subsequent access and analysis. However, a growing number of developers and users have begun turning to various types of nonrelational, now frequently called NoSQL-databases. Nonrelational databases, including hierarchical, graph, and object-oriented databases-have been around since the late 1960s. However, new types of NoSQL databases are being developed. And only now are they beginning to gain market traction. Different NoSQL databases take different approaches. What they have in common is that they're not relational. Their primary advantage is that, unlike relational databases, they handle unstructured data such as word-processing files, e-mail, multimedia, and social media efficiently. This paper discuss issues such as limitations, advantages, concerns and doubts regarding NoSQL databases.