The world seemed to come alive with a slew of "alternative" approaches to data persistence with the introduction of CouchDB. It's collectively called NoSQL and offers a slightly to radically different view of data storage and retrieval. It has left a few developers scratching their heads, trying to figure out when to use a NoSQL database instead of a regular database, much less which NoSQL database to use. This session will examine the NoSQL ecosystem, look at the major players, how they compare and contrast, and what sort of architectural implications they have for software systems in general.

You will learn:

• What a "NoSQL" is (and why the name is just terrible)
• Why the RDBMS isn't always the answer to our data storage problems
• Explore a few NoSQLs at a high conceptual level