DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Partner Zones AWS Cloud
by AWS Developer Relations
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Partner Zones
AWS Cloud
by AWS Developer Relations
Building Scalable Real-Time Apps with AstraDB and Vaadin
Register Now
  1. DZone
  2. Data Engineering
  3. Data
  4. When one is better than two: Collapsing data management layers for scalability and simplicity
Content provided by Couchbase logo

When one is better than two: Collapsing data management layers for scalability and simplicity

Don Pinto user avatar by
Don Pinto
·
Apr. 04, 13 · Interview
Like (0)
Save
Tweet
Share
2.29K Views

Rick Grehan recently posted an in-depth product review of Couchbase and MongoDB. I was struck in particular by one of Rick’s observations:

“Couchbase’s full incorporation of Memcached has no counterpart in MongoDB, and Memcached is a powerful adjunct as general object caching system for high-throughput, data-intensive Internet and intranet applications. If your application needs a Memcache server with your database, then look no further than Couchbase.” (italics mine)

In computing, there is an interesting phenomenon that occurs over a period of time. We build layers of abstraction and components as layers – over time, these layers grow and become somewhat unwieldy until someone comes along and shows us that the layers can be designed away. Either intermediate layers are eliminated or different layers are consolidated, essentially providing an order of magnitude improvement in performance, simplicity and management.

For example, originally, many hardware chips started as discrete components (adders, multipliers, etc.) and over time, single chips consolidated many of these functions and interestingly, such chips are called Integrated Circuits (ICs) because they combine or “integrate” these components into a single consolidated chip.

Similarly, over time, we have seen how a small inexpensive box consolidates a router, a broadband modem, firewall, DHCP server – all components that existed as discrete software and hardware systems at some point in time. Or, interestingly, how PDAs and phones have consolidated – both the layers of software and the containers.

I see this same phenomenon emerging in the NoSQL database market. NoSQL databases are widely used to build distributed internet applications dealing with unstructured data and support a very large set of users. As we engage with companies considering NoSQL, we find that their topologies tend to front end the data store with a high-performance scalable distributed caching tier (such as memcached or Oracle Coherence) to deal with scaling a large number of users and a large data set. That’s two sets of software and hardware, and all the complexity of managing two disparate systems.

This scenario is ripe for layer consolidation – which is what Couchbase does. With Couchbase handling both tiers, users can simplify their application environments for greater scalability, efficiency and manageability. It’s the case that one is better than two.




Comments

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends: