Polyglot persistency: solving the data dilemma

According to The Economist, 'The world's most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data'.

As people and companies become increasingly digital, the amount of data - both structured and unstructured - being collected and stored, continues to grow exponentially and unabated. The result is a growing burden on service providers as their technologies struggle to analyze and store all this information. To understand how the industry reached this point, a historical perspective can help:

Prior to the internet, SQL was the dominant language for interacting with databases. As the standard for storing application data in a data store, it provided a structured, relational, uniform and simple framework with which to work. The advent of the internet saw new types of applications being created, such as social networks, ecommerce apps and so on - and with them, the introduction of online services. The result was more data. A lot more.

As the internet continued to grow, the software community found their relational databases could no longer cope, leading to the increasing popularity of NoSQL databases. NoSQL's advantage was that it was mainly not relational, and it promised scale and power. It also provided tools and capabilities that were capable of handling the unique data structure, volume and performance requirements of the digital world. But it had limitations too. NoSQL has its own language that you need to learn in order to use it and connecting it to your application can also be a laborious process.

At end of the day, both SQL and NoSQL store data, albeit using different approaches. Some projects are better suited to an SQL database, while others work well with NoSQL. In many cases you can use both. This is what we call polyglot persistency.

When your organization's setup calls best of both worlds, the question becomes how. The challenge then comes in devising the optimum strategy that suits your specific apps.

To learn more how polyglot persistency can empower your digital applications, download our white paper, which explains the key criteria for selecting the right data store for your needs. It also includes examples from our new digital offering of how polyglot persistence is a key foundation of our new ecommerce, data hub, and charging offering.

And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

About the author: Roy Mor is Head of Technology Research, Amdocs Digital Technology Office