Roughly a year and a half ago, I wrote a quick, minimal blog entitled Geeking with MongoDB and .Net which promptly set all sort of records on this site for traffic in one day; lots of developers, database guys, and others were interested in MongoDB and the NoSQL movement. And they still are. I received lots of emails and replies about it, most were nice, some neutral, and some claiming that my test was bogus…and some were flat-out hate emails suggesting that I should be banished from the world as we know it today. Heck I even got mentioned on a few blogs, one particular on blogs.lessthandot.com stating that I had a flaw in the comparison of a MongoDB insert vs SQL Server.
We’re a very passionate lot aren’t we? It was definitely an interesting week, no doubt.
Which begs the question, why is NoSQL labeled a movement? To me that’s a bad descriptor, more like a moniker than what is actually happening today. A movement by definition is defined as “the act or process of moving” or a “particular instance or manner of moving” which incorrectly describes NoSQL in my opinion. Was it a movement when XML showed up? I mean, did we all go solely with XML and completely do away with .txt files for storing data as text? No. Or, was it a movement when the SQL CLR showed up? Um, no again. These additions, in fact, were enhancements to our great product and landscape; an addition to our toolbox which may someday allow us options to approach a problem in order to find the best solution. There was no mass exodus, as there will not be with NoSQL. The “movement” verbiage is inaccurate; I view MongoDB and NoSQL as an addition to how we go about crafting solutions. And it’s not going away.
I also see where my friend Bryan Smith of Microsoft and the Microsoft MTC South Central District in Irving, TX recently spoke on NoSQL at the North Texas SQL Server Users Group meeting, recently as in last night, about this very technology. (I couldn’t go, but I’ll check back…they’ll probably add his presentation and code there soon, or he will on his blog). Interesting eh? Now, why do you suppose that someone from the mother ship is doing lunch and learns on NoSQL? Surprising to you? Naa, not so much to me anyway. Microsoft is using this technology in more places than you think. I’m continually amazed each time I meander over to the MongoDB site to see growing number production deployments. Amazing!
Anyway, I could write more on this, but back to why I’m writing this morning…I’m going to the MongoDB event in Dallas on November 17, 2011 and am excited to see what’s up with the current version of MongoDB. So fam, come out and join if you want, and learn about this technology. I’d like to meet you while I’m there as well. I haven’t set up a shard yet on my servers, but I’m jazzed to learn more about it and see it in person so I can set one up here at home. Who knows – maybe one day I’ll be setting up one at work.
Thanks,
Lee
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http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/movement
http://www.10gen.com/events/mongo-dallas-2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoSQL
http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/All/
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/data_otaku/
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