{"id":1704,"date":"2014-12-16T19:09:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T19:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.couchbase.com\/blog\/?p=1704"},"modified":"2023-06-28T01:00:27","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T08:00:27","slug":"mongodb-and-scale-out-no-says-mongohq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.couchbase.com\/blog\/mongodb-and-scale-out-no-says-mongohq\/","title":{"rendered":"MongoDB and Scale Out? No, says MongoHQ"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may have heard that MongoDB has issues with scaling out<\/em>. You may have heard that Viber is replacing MongoDB with Couchbase Server. Have you heard how to scale with MongoHQ?<\/p>\n

I agree with MongoHQ on one thing. It’s easier to scale up<\/em>. While scaling up<\/em> may be the only solution for MongoDB, it is not the right solution. What happens when there is no more room to scale up<\/em>? I think that MongoHQ would prefer to scale out, but they realized that MongoDB was not engineered for it.<\/p>\n

It results in a loss of functionality…<\/p>\n

In MongoDB, for instance, horizontal scales means losing out on unique secondary indexes (one of the few schema constraints MongoDB currently supports) for a given collection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It requires difficult decisions…<\/p>\n

In MongoDB, this choice is the \u201cshard key decision\u201d that you will hear experienced MongoDB users talk about with undertones of dread.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is complex to configure and maintain…<\/p>\n

But once you\u2019ve got your sharded database into production, then there\u2019s the underlying reality that your system has more \u201cmoving parts\u201d in it than might be ideal because more moving parts mean more things can go wrong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It results in a loss of performance…<\/p>\n

In a sharded setup, the network connectivity between the Mongo router, config servers, and each shard influences overall performance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Couchbase Server, on the other hand, was engineered to scale out. It does not result in a loss of functionality. It does not require difficult decisions. It is not complex to configure and maintain. It does not result in a loss of performance.<\/p>\n