NoSQL Whitepapers

2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud Database Management Systems

With data management shifting rapidly to the cloud, this report is designed to help data and analytics leaders make the right technology choices in a complex market. You'll learn about popular cloud DBMS vendors, read real user reviews, and discover why Couchbase was recognized by Gartner® for completeness of vision and ability to execute.

High Performance Applications with Distributed Caching

For many web, mobile, and IoT applications that run in clustered or cloud environments, distributed caching is a key to delivering highly responsive user experiences and lowering capital and operating costs.

In this whitepaper, you’ll learn how different distributed caching solutions attempt to solve the common challenges of performance, manageability, and scalability. You’ll be able to compare strengths and weaknesses of three popular caching solutions: Couchbase Server, Redis, and Memcached. You’ll find out why many leading enterprises have extended their Couchbase deployments to use cases beyond caching. And you’ll see how Couchbase stacks up against top NoSQL database competitors in third-party benchmark testing.

Why NoSQL?

NoSQL databases store information in JSON documents instead of the columns and rows used by relational databases. As a result, they’re flexible, scalable, and capable of rapidly responding to the data management demands of modern businesses. In this whitepaper you’ll learn how NoSQL enables you to:

• Support thousands or millions of concurrent users
• Deliver highly responsive experiences to a globally distributed base of users
• Keep your applications always available with no downtime
• Easily handle structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data
• Rapidly adapt to changing requirements with frequent updates and new features

How to Choose a Database for Your Mobile Apps

The database you choose plays a key role in building successful mobile apps. If your app requires a connection to work, performance will be sluggish and spotty – and your customers will find a better experience elsewhere. Use this whitepaper to select the best mobile database for your needs based on 9 critical questions, including:

• Does it support the right platforms?
• Can you control your database sync?
• What querying options does your local database support?
• Do you deploy on-prem or in the cloud?
• Does the sync technology support multiple topologies?
• Should you build or should you buy?

We also help you answer one last critical question: Should you build or should you buy? Get your white paper now for the answers you need.

Couchbase Under the Hood – An Architectural Overview

Couchbase is an open source, distributed, document-oriented NoSQL database. This paper describes how the internal components of the database operate with one another, and how Couchbase’s core design principles – memory and network-centric architecture, workload isolation, and an asynchronous approach to everything – are focused toward the highest standards for agile development, scalable performance, and system manageability.

You’ll be introduced to key Couchbase concepts. You’ll take a deep dive into Couchbase’s services for data and KV engine, key-value data access, query, index, search, eventing, analytics, and mobile. And you’ll learn how Couchbase’s distributed foundation handles inter-node connectivity, data flow, cluster topology, data streaming, and more.

Cloud and Edge Computing Whitepaper

With cloud computing growing at a phenomenal rate, applications that rely solely on the cloud for data storage and processing are showing signs of strain – especially those that require high availability and sub-second response times. This whitepaper explains how “edge computing” utilizes all the benefits of the cloud while removing the risks. You’ll learn how you can:

• Achieve real-time speed by keeping data closer to, or on, the devices using it
• Provide uninterrupted data access regardless of internet connectivity
• Protect sensitive data by ensuring that it only leaves the edge when necessary
• Cut costs by lowering the volume of data transferred over the internet

Moving from Relational to NoSQL: How to Get Started (for Oracle Users)

Modern enterprises across industries have switched to NoSQL databases to achieve agile development, reduced operational costs, and scalable operations. This whitepaper introduces you to NoSQL technology and highlights lessons learned from enterprises that have successfully adopted NoSQL databases. You’ll learn about:

• Key considerations and strategies for transitioning to NoSQL
• Tips for moving from Oracle and other relational databases
• Recommendations for identifying the best applications for NoSQL
• Strategies for modeling relational data as documents
• Basic differences between operating NoSQL and relational databases

Relational to NoSQL: Getting Started From SQL Server (for SQL Users)

Modern enterprise technology architecture requires an agile approach to real-time data management that can accommodate unprecedented levels of scale, speed, and data variability. This whitepaper introduces you to NoSQL technology and highlights lessons learned from enterprises that have successfully adopted NoSQL databases. You’ll learn about:

• Key considerations and strategies for transitioning to NoSQL
• Tips for moving from SQL Server and other relational databases
• Recommendations for identifying the best applications for NoSQL
• Strategies for modeling relational data as documents
• Basic differences between operating NoSQL and relational databases

High Availability and Disaster Recovery for Globally Distributed Data – Couchbase Cross Datacenter Replication (XDCR) Technology Overview

Today’s digital economy requires high availability of data and high performance of applications across geographies. To meet this need, businesses are implementing complex hybrid data infrastructures that call for innovative approaches to data replication. Designed to replicate at the speed of the network, Couchbase’s cross datacenter replication (XDCR) is one of the best solutions available. This whitepaper:
 

• Introduces the concept and benefits of XDCR

• Provides a synopsis of the XDCR technology, with an emphasis on architecture design and deployment flexibility

• Explains why XDCR is ideally suited for hybrid deployment, cloud migration, and high availability

IDC Report: Performance Accountability and Edge Decision Making with Couchbase

While cloud computing has grown at a phenomenal rate over the past decade, applications that rely solely on the cloud for data storage and processing are showing signs of strain – especially those that require high availability and ultra-low latency. In this IDC Report, learn how edge computing addresses these issues by moving data and compute closer to the clients that use it, making applications faster and more resilient by eliminating dependencies on cloud data centers. The paper covers IDC’s latest research on the emerging edge services landscape, and highlights Couchbase latency benchmark test results on edge service zones from AWS and Verizon.

Build World-Class Web Apps Using Node.js and Couchbase

NoSQL databases such as Couchbase store documents in JSON format, making them a natural fit for Node.js developers. With JavaScript development integrated from front end to back end, devs are free to focus on their applications rather than the database that powers them. Read this whitepaper to see: 
 

• How Couchbase enables you to build apps quickly and deploy them at scale

• How to use Node.js alongside Couchbase via the SDK, Ottoman ODM, and RAGE stack

• What common projects use both Node.js and Couchbase to tackle today's development challenges

The TCO Advantages of Couchbase Capella's In-VPC Deployment

In-VPC deployment is an emerging best practice used by independent software vendors to offer customers in the cloud a level of resource, asset, and cost control similar to what they would have if they were managing their own custom-built data centers. Using Couchbase Capella’s Database-as-a-Service as a model, this whitepaper breaks down the functional and cost-control benefits of in-VPC deployment. You’ll learn about:
 

• In-VPC deployment strategies for maximizing savings and minimizing risk
• Performance and scaling capabilities that use available resources most efficiently
• Turning licensing and transparency policies into savings

Altoros Report: Performance Evaluation of NoSQL Databases-as-a-Service with YCSB: Couchbase Capella, MongoDB Atlas, and AWS DynamoDB

Compare Couchbase Capella with other cloud Database-as-a-Service providers like MongoDB’s™ Atlas cloud service and Amazon’s DynamoDB database service.

In this report, Altoros compares:

• Performance across evaluated workloads
• Aggregation, filtering, and JOIN operations on large datasets
• Scalability as clusters and datasets grow in size

See how Couchbase leads with:

• Superior in-memory performance
• N1QL, a declarative SQL-like language vs. proprietary, imperative languages
• Couchbase processes more operations per dollar with the lowest TCO

Couchbase Highlights Relational Database Familiarity to Drive Transformation-Led Adoption by 451 Research

For many years, Couchbase has been leading the movement to combine the flexibility and agility of NoSQL with the familiar concepts of relational databases. In this analyst report, 451 Research details why businesses are increasingly choosing Couchbase and NoSQL to drive their data modernization initiatives. You’ll get a solid introduction to Couchbase’s:

• Products – Couchbase Server, Couchbase Mobile, and the Couchbase Capella DBaaS
• Technology – learn how scopes, collections, and ACID transactions make modeling easier
• Competition – meet the top NoSQL contenders and see how Couchbase stacks up

Analysis of Database Query Languages in MySQL, Couchbase Server, and MongoDB (Altoros)

NoSQL Document databases are challenging conventional RDBMS thinking with regard to scale, flexibility and performance. The question remains, do their query languages address the needs of developers as well or better than tried and true SQL? This report takes the query language challenge to Couchbase and MongoDB using MySQL as the reference baseline.

This report from independent firm, Alteros, uses 7 different criteria to evaluate Couchbase N1QL and MongoDB Query against MySQL’s SQL. The criteria scores each language according to how simple, readable, expressive, and flexible they are, and then whether skilled resources are readily available; how many lines of code must be written per query, and finally, when the query runs, how many application-to-database trips must be made before it completes. The article concludes by recognizing that declarative languages are preferred over procedural ones, which in turn helps limit performance drains during execution, and that familiarity with SQL, especially including unambiguous support for JOINs, makes the utility of N1QL stand out above MongoDB.

Is COVID-19 to Blame For Digital Transformation Challenges in 2020? (CIO Survey 2020)

In 2019, digital transformation was on the rise as many industries prospered. Then the 2020 pandemic changed everything. Employees started working from home, customers moved online, and IT budgets were shifted or cut. Based on an extensive survey of IT decision-makers, this report examines whether COVID-19 has halted, boosted, or simply redirected digital transformation progress. You’ll learn:

• What the primary drivers are for digital transformation projects

• Why proactive priorities and strategies yield better results than reactive ones

• Why 79% of organizations see digital transformation projects fail, suffer significant delays, or get scaled back

Database design for retail inventory and product catalogs

Today’s leading retailers and e-commerce companies are embracing NoSQL database technology to power their web and mobile applications. Why? Because NoSQL is better than relational technology at meeting their demanding requirements for performance, scalability, availability, agility, and affordability.

This brief introduces you to NoSQL by showing you how easy it is to build a product and pricing catalog using the Couchbase NoSQL database – including code samples for data modeling and querying. You’ll also see how Couchbase fits into a catalog and inventory architecture, learn about other retail and e-commerce applications commonly built on Couchbase, and get real-world customer case studies.

8 Data Requirements Transforming Retail Applications

Many of today’s retailers and e-commerce companies are replatforming their existing applications using NoSQL. Their goal is to deliver better customer experiences, manage more users and data, cut costs, reduce time to market, and meet competitive pressures from behemoths like Amazon.

This brief explores why industry leaders are choosing NoSQL databases and a microservices-based approach for their replatforming initiatives. It explains how the Couchbase NoSQL database addresses 8 key requirements for engaging modern digital shoppers. And it shows you how Couchbase customers like PayPal, Tesco, Staples, and Louis Vuitton provide superior shopping experiences with elastic scalability, high performance, high availability, and always-on mobile capabilities.

Couchbase on Kubernetes

Kubernetes has become the de facto industry standard for container orchestration and a critical tool for enterprise DevOps teams. As a distributed application framework, Kubernetes is especially ideal for hybrid and multicloud deployments. This comprehensive ebook walks you through:

• A detailed introduction to Kubernetes and its architecture
• How Couchbase Autonomous Operator provides native integration of the Couchbase Server NoSQL database with open source Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift
• The step-by-step process for implementing Autonomous Operator and getting the most out of its unique and powerful features

Technical NoSQL Comparison Report (Altoros) 2019

Numerous NoSQL solutions claim to solve common big data problems like data structure organization and data access management. But because of significant differences in implementation, it’s important to recognize the comparative strengths and weaknesses of each vendor.

This in-depth analysis from Altoros compares three leading NoSQL solutions – Couchbase, MongoDB™, and DataStax – and scores them across 24 key criteria, including performance, availability, ease of installation, data consistency, fault tolerance, replication, recovery, and scalability. The report uses data from real-world development and production, regularly conducted benchmarks, and product documentation in order to recommend the best database based on your specific needs.

Couchbase vs. MongoDB™ for Query

Couchbase and MongoDB™ are both popular NoSQL databases, but significant differences in their architectures and features make Couchbase the better choice for demanding enterprise requirements. This whitepaper focuses specifically on their approaches to query.

Among their many key differences, you’ll learn how Couchbase provides developers with the power and familiarity of SQL while MongoDB requires them to learn a proprietary language. You’ll see how MongoDB puts the burden of optimizing queries on the developer while Couchbase’s declarative language shifts the burden to the database. And you’ll discover why MongoDB’s complex query language can’t match Couchbase’s strong support for ANSI join constructs and advanced query optimization.

Couchbase vs. MongoDB™ for Global Deployment

Many enterprises that rely on their NoSQL database for global deployments choose Couchbase over MongoDB™ because of Couchbase’s unmatched scalability and high availability. This whitepaper compares the two solutions head to head across key global deployment criteria, including high-performance architecture, flexibility, setup and manageability, active-active conflict resolution, and more. You’ll learn how only Couchbase supports both intra-cluster replication and cross datacenter replication (XDCR) – an easy way to replicate data for disaster recovery and better data locality. And you’ll discover why Couchbase is the better choice for flexible data access, low latency, high throughput, geographic replication, and offline access.

Couchbase vs. MongoDB™ for Scale-Out and High Availability

Couchbase is a distributed NoSQL document-oriented database with a core architecture that supports a flexible data model, easy scalability, consistent high performance, always-on 24/365 characteristics, and advanced security. Many enterprises have chosen Couchbase over the popular MongoDB™ after rigorously evaluating both NoSQL databases side by side. In this paper, we’ll focus on how Couchbase compares to MongoDB™ for scalability and high availability. More specifically, we’ll discuss: The ability to scale enterprise applications easily, efficiently, and reliably. Scaling single services instead of the entire database. Avoiding downtime and maintaining high availability 24/7 with replication, automatic failover, and online operations.

How Travel and Hospitality Companies are Transforming their Customer Experience in the Age of Kayak, Airbnb and Uber

Modern travel and hospitality businesses rely on a complex network of interactions between customers, consolidators, suppliers, maintenance providers, call centers, web services, and management services. It’s nearly impossible to support this ecosystem using traditional transactional and analytical systems – especially under the constantly increasing pressure of higher customer expectations and new digital competitors. This whitepaper explains how leading organizations like Amadeus, Marriott, and United Airlines rely on agile, flexible, high-performance NoSQL databases to:

• Work with changing data models

• Leverage existing SQL skills for JSON

• Scale without hassle

• Achieve consistent performance

• Lower total cost of ownership

• Integrate mobile applications

DynamoDB Users: Why Switching to Couchbase Will Save You Time and Money

Businesses using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud often store their data in Amazon’s DynamoDB database with the expectation of tighter integration with AWS tools. This whitepaper explains why Couchbase’s NoSQL database is often a better choice for higher performance, lower cost, and greater flexibility. You’ll learn how Couchbase lets you:

• Avoid DynamoDB’s item-size restrictions

• Speed up performance with in-memory processing and built-in caching

• Use your team’s existing SQL skills for writing complex queries

• Easily implement a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy

• Cut license and support costs by up to 50%

Comparing Two SQL-Based Approaches for Querying JSON: SQL++ and SQL:2016 (Don Chamberlin)

In this whitepaper, Don Chamberlin (co-designer of the original SQL) compares SQL++ and SQL:2016 – two quite different SQL-based approaches to querying JSON data. SQL++ creates a new SQL-based language specifically for JSON data, while 2016 allows JSON documents to be stored in columns of tables. The paper introduces both languages, looks at example queries written in each, and analyzes their pros and cons. You’ll learn how SQL++ can enable you to:

• Use your existing SQL skills with a more flexible data format

• Shorten your queries by about 3x compared with SQL:2016

• Operate on JSON data without converting it to or from relational data

NoSQL Performance Benchmark 2018 (Altoros)

In this report, Altoros evaluates and compares the latency and performance of the three most popular NoSQL databases – Couchbase Server, MongoDB™, and DataStax Enterprise (Cassandra) – under different cluster configurations and workloads using the Yahoo! Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB).

The evaluation was conducted on different cluster configurations of 4, 10, and 20 nodes under four different workloads. The four workloads tested were an update-heavy workload, a short-range scan workload, a query with filter including an offset and limit, and a JOIN query with grouping and ordering. You’ll see exactly how Couchbase consistently outperformed the competition across configurations and workloads.

Couchbase Evaluation Guide for Java Developers

Java developers need to build responsive, flexible applications without compromising performance or scale. Couchbase’s multicloud-to-edge JSON document database helps you do just that. This guide makes it easy to evaluate Couchbase as a distributed data store for Java applications – without having to install any software. Read it to learn about: 

• Differences between document databases and relational databases, and that they mean for your apps

• Couchbase’s N1QL query language, built to be intuitive for anyone who knows SQL

• Indexing a Couchbase database to ensure high performance

• The Couchbase Playground, which lets Java developers explore the database using language-specific examples and a step-by-step guide

• Extending Couchbase into your app development stack with Couchbase’s Java SDK and Spring Boot

Couchbase for 5G-Powered Edge Computing

The rollout of 5G is making distributed edge computing a must for applications that require extreme resilience, speed, security, and efficiency. And Couchbase is the only database that supports the distributed model at every tier – from the cloud to the edge – ensuring critical information never stops flowing to your apps. This whitepaper details:

• Why deploying edge computing into the 5G network is a game changer for both existing apps and innovations such as autonomous cars and smart factories

• How Couchbase’s powerful sync technology facilitates movement of data between the edge and backend data centers

• How app developers can create offline-first apps by using Couchbase Lite for ephemeral on-device storage and processing

Distributed Cloud and Edge Computing for 100% Uptime

With cloud computing growing at a phenomenal rate, applications that rely solely on the cloud for data storage and processing are showing signs of strain – especially those that require high availability and sub-second response times. This whitepaper explains how “edge computing” utilizes all the benefits of the cloud while removing the risks. You’ll learn how you can:

• Achieve real-time speed by keeping data closer to, or on, the devices using it

• Provide uninterrupted data access regardless of internet connectivity

• Protect sensitive data by ensuring that it only leaves the edge when necessary

• Cut costs by lowering the volume of data transferred over the internet