Good reasons NOT to use a relational database?

Question

Can you please point to alternative data storage tools and give good reasons to use them instead of good-old relational databases? In my opinion, most applications rarely us

Answer 1

G'day,

One case that I can think of is when the data you are modelling cannot be easily represented in a relational database.

Once such example is the database used by mobile phone operators to monitor and control base stations for mobile telephone networks.

I almost all of these cases, an OO DB is used, either a commercial product or a self-rolled system that allows heirarchies of objects.

I've worked on a 3G monitoring application for a large company who will remain nameless, but whose logo is a red wine stain (-: , and they used such an OO DB to keep track of all the various attributes for individual cells within the network.

Interrogation of such DBs is done using proprietary techniques that are, usually, completely free from SQL.

HTH.

cheers,

Rob