Technical leader and evangelist with extensive experience across databases, AI and developer enablement. Specialised in technical writing, education and community strategy. Proven ability to translate complex technology into clear, engaging narratives that inspire learning and adoption. Regular international speaker, published author and contributor to thought leadership in data systems, AI and developer education.
Seven Vector Databases in Seven Days
Jul 2026 - Current
A free online book for developers and architects evaluating vector search tooling for AI and RAG applications. Each of the seven chapters covers a different database - Postgres, MongoDB Atlas, Pinecone, Weaviate, Neo4j, Snowflake and Databricks - with a hands-on Jupyter notebook and an honest look at what that database is genuinely good at and when you should look elsewhere. The book does not produce a ranking or pick a winner. Instead it gives readers the context to make a good decision for their own situation, whether that means staying with a database they already have or reaching for something purpose-built.
Aug 2025 - Current
I spent nearly four years at SingleStore, working closely with the database and its surrounding ecosystem. During that time, I developed technical content, delivered webinars and workshops, and explored many of the platform's capabilities, including real-time analytics, multi-model data access, vector search and AI-powered applications. In 2025, I left SingleStore to take a sabbatical, during which much of this book was written. The material draws heavily on hands-on experience gained through building applications, educational resources and demonstrations using SingleStore.
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Comments
Mar 12, 2025 · Akmal Chaudhri
Thank you Lisa. The Jupyter Notebook contains more details and the full code. I shortened the code a little bit in the article to keep the length reasonable.
May 10, 2017 · Chris Brumfield
There are also other considerations when choosing technology, such as skills, long-term vendor survival, so on. I have been tracking NoSQL databases since early 2012, collecting publicly available data on skills and vendors. Considerations and summary of data in Section 2 of this very large slide deck: Considerations for using NoSQL technology on your next IT project Data last updated in August 2016, so due for a major update.
Mar 06, 2016 · Arno Meysman
I have been tracking NoSQL databases for several years, collecting publicly available data on skills and vendors. The NoSQL market is still tiny. Considerations and summary of data in Section 2 of this very large slide deck: Considerations for using NoSQL technology on your next IT project. Slides regularly updated with new data as I find it.
Feb 12, 2016 · Tom Smith
Did you also look at security issues?
Jan 26, 2016 · Sam Atkinson
Developer mindset for one. The fact that SQL was originally designed for relational databases and extending it for use for NoSQL is not necessarily the way forward. And there are plenty of good points in several LinkedIn discussion threads. Have a read:
Is N1QL more then SQL-92 ?
You really believe that SQL is a good query language for: XML, JSON, graphs, !??? Really !??? In 2016 !???
How to kill NoSQL (if I were Oracle..)
And there may be other hidden costs as well, some of which are discussed here:
The hidden costs of NoSQL
Another issue is performance. I have read in a few places that N1QL performance is very poor. How about Couchbase publishing some performance numbers for N1QL production deployments or comparing their N1QL implementation against relational systems or Cassandra CQL?
Jan 17, 2016 · Sam Atkinson
There are also dangers with using SQL on NoSQL. Two articles that discuss some of the issues:
Using SQL techniques in NoSQL is OK, right? WRONG
and
Don’t Be Fooled By Facades
Whilst the discussion is more about Cassandra CQL, the issues may still be relevant to N1QL as well.
Oct 21, 2015 · Davis Kerby
There are also other considerations that people may need to think about, such as skills, vendor funding, performance, security, so on. MongoDB may not do so well in those areas. I have been tracking NoSQL databases for several years, collecting publicly available data on skills and vendors. The NoSQL market is still tiny. Considerations and summary of data in Section 2 of this very large slide deck: https://speakerdeck.com/abchaudhri/considerations-for-using-nosql-technology-on-your-next-it-project-1 Slides regularly updated with new data as I find it.