Xenomorph
  • Solutions
  • Technology
  • Customers
  • Resources
  • News
  • About Us
  • Request a Demo
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

News

NoSQL and Data Management – More on MarkLogic

It has been a couple of years since I last caught up with MarkLogic (click here for 2014 event blog post) and their brand of NoSQL database so given some of my colleagues recent work with NoSQL databases I thought I would have a catch up at their event in London this week. Many of the big themes have evolved but remain broadly consistent, and in particular on many data warehousing projects there were three main points they were making:

  • New input source fields – should not require expensive ETL reworks
  • New user queries – should not require database re-indexing
  • Higher workloads – should not require expensive new hardware

As with a lot of NoSQL-related companies then MarkLogic paints relational databases as legacy technology. Firstly there was some use of the old (but in application-specific cases valid) argument of the object databases that unfolding all that relational schema to rehydrate your entity object is expensive and a more direct mapping from business object to application object is both easy to understand and quicker to code. Put another way it is easier and faster to build applications if the business data you need in your app looks like the data you see in the database. This argument formed the basis behind MarkLogic’s pitch about their document database capabilities.

MarkLogic event - silos

There was a lot of criticism of the relational data model, its rigidity and how systems integration leads to ever more complicated schemas, which in turn leads to the creation of more and ever-larger data silos (silos loomed large, see event photo above!). On a related note (no pun intended) they then described how the relationships in a relational database were hard to understand and lacked meaning. Which then led into their pitch around the triplestore capabilities of MarkLogic and the benefits of a semantic representation of data to reduce data integration effort and increase the meaning of data within databases. Semantics have long been a source of (ironic?) misunderstanding for me (see past post on this) but certainly something of interest given the potential industry adoption of the EDM Council’s FIBO. Anyway I am not all of the way there (some ideas take my brain a long time to assimilate!) but they at least showed some reasonable examples of the semantic querying and inference of relationships between data.

In summary one of the main points about MarkLogic seems to be that they conform with the standards of document databases (JSON, XML etc) and the standards of semantic database (RDF triples etc) but offer a powerful and non-standard combination of the two. So they cover both a flexible way of representing data plus a flexible way of representing relationships between data, done in a database that can scale-out as workload rises. They continued to do a downer on open-source (“what version do you have installed” aimed mainly at MongoDB) and pushed their own  ACID compliance (again aimed at MongoDB from what I can tell).

I thought that the dismissal of relational databases was slightly over-cooked – the relational data model is a proven solution to known-schema relational problems and relational databases are not standing still either. Speaking with some of the users at the event then the MarkLogic sweet spot seemed to be having an extremely flexible, scalable database that could cope well with both structured and unstructured data types together within a single platform. I have heard some question marks on ease of use of the product, but it would seem that the next release is looking to provide more sophisticated database management tools so maybe that is being addressed. Overall a good day from what I saw of it – shame I couldn’t stay for drinks but the lunch was good if that was any indication!

Share this entry
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
https://www.xenomorph.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/logo-xeno.png 0 0 Matt Pick https://www.xenomorph.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/logo-xeno.png Matt Pick2016-06-14 09:15:232020-02-06 11:18:49NoSQL and Data Management – More on MarkLogic

Categories

  • Blog Post
  • Events
  • Press Release

Archives

About Xenomorph

Xenomorph provides trusted data management solutions to many of the world’s leading financial institutions.

With more than two decades’ experience managing large volumes of complex data and analytics we can quickly configure a solution for your requirements.

Xenomorph London

4th Floor
10 Lloyd’s Avenue
London EC3N 3AJ
UK

+44 (0)20 7614 8600

info@xenomorph.com

map

Xenomorph New York

45 Rockefeller Plaza, FL 20
New York
NY 10111
USA

+1-212-401-7894

info@xenomorph.com

map


Xenomorph Boston

53 State Street
Suite 500
Boston, MA 02109
USA

+1-617-465-2050

info@xenomorph.com

map

© Xenomorph Software Ltd 2022 - Privacy policy | Anti-Bribery Policy
Scroll to top
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. If you continue to use the site we will assume your consent. ACCEPTRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
SAVE & ACCEPT