![126/365 Solar Eclipse [Explored]](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5284/5323436021_f4873580d3.jpg)
by Angela Guess
A recent article claims that NoSQL is beginning to eclipse the traditional relational database. The article begins, “The relational database may never die — at least not anytime soon — but its days of glory appear to be over. Relational databases, long a critical piece of enterprise software deployments, are now forced to share the stage with technologies better geared to accommodate newer data structures and modern hardware systems. Stalwart RDBMSes remain in place from software vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle, all of which will continue to dominate such core functions as financial transactions. But NoSQL databases, as well as big data technologies such as Apache Hadoop and MapReduce, are where the action is.”
Robin Bloor, chief analyst at the Bloor Group stated, “The relational database as it stands is dead… Its architecture is old, and it needs to be renewed.” The article adds, “Bloor reasons that RDBMSes were written for old hardware environments with single-CPU systems, a small amount of memory, and large stores of disk space. With the growing prominence of multi-CPU computers and solid-state disks, disk access is no longer as important. ‘The whole thing is changed. You’re going from a train to an airplane,’ says Bloor. Solid-state disks are faster, so the ratio between disk and memory in terms of read speed will come down, he said.”
