A NoSQL Database: MongoDB

With the rise in data all around the world, there has been an observable and increasing interest surrounding the wave of the non-relational database, also known as ‘NoSQL. ‘ Businesses and organizations are seeking new methods to manage the flood of data and are drawn toward the alternate database management tools and systems that are different from the traditional relational database systems. Here comes MongoDB into the picture. 

What Is MongoDB? 

As a definition, MongoDB is an open-source database that uses a document-oriented data model and a non-structured query language. It is one of the most powerful NoSQL systems and databases around today. 

MongoDB Atlas is a cloud database solution for contemporary applications that is available globally. This best-in-class automation and established practices offer to deploy fully managed MongoDB across AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. 

It also ensures availability, scalability, and compliance with the most stringent data security and privacy requirements. MongoDB Cloud is a unified data platform that includes a global cloud database, search, data lake, mobile, and application services. 

Being a NoSQL tool means that it does not use the usual rows and columns that you associate with relational database management. It is an architecture that is built on collections and documents. The basic unit of data in this database consists of a set of key-value pairs. It allows documents to have different fields and structures. This database uses a document storage format called BSON, which is a binary style of JSON documents. 

The data model that MongoDB follows is a highly elastic one that lets you combine and store data of multivariate types without having to compromise on powerful indexing options, data access, and validation rules. There is no downtime when you want to dynamically modify the schemas. What it means is that you can concentrate more on making your data work harder rather than spending more time preparing the data for the database. 

Here is an example of a document database in MongoDB: 

{ 

_id: name: “Thomson”,
Age: 22,
Address: {{street: “124 church street”,
                  city: “brooklyn”,
                 state: “NY”,
                   zip: “13400”,
                   country: “US”}}
} 

The Architecture of MongoDB NoSQL Database 

Database

In simple words, it can be called the physical container for data. Each of the databases has its own set of files on the file system, with multiple databases existing on a single MongoDB server. 

Collection

A group of database documents can be called a collection. The RDBMS equivalent to a collection is a table. The entire collection exists within a single database. There are no schemas when it comes to collections. Inside the collection, various documents can have varied fields, but mostly, the documents within a collection are meant for the same purpose or to serve the same end goal. 

Document

A set of key-value pairs can be designated as a document. Documents are associated with dynamic schemas. The benefit of having dynamic schemas is that a document in a single collection does not have to possess the same structure or fields. Also, the common fields in a collection document can have varied types of data.  

Important MongoDB Features 

• Queries: It supports ad-hoc queries and document-based queries. 
• Index support: Any field in the document can be indexed. 
• Replication: It supports Master-Slave replication. MongoDB uses native applications to maintain multiple copies of data. Preventing database downtime is one of the replica set’s features, as it has a self-healing shard. 
• Multiple servers: The database can run over multiple servers. Data is duplicated to foolproof the system in the case of hardware failure. 
• Auto-sharding: This process distributes data across multiple physical partitions called shards. Due to sharding, MongoDB has an automatic load-balancing feature. 
• MapReduce: It supports MapReduce and flexible aggregation tools. 
• Failure handling: In MongoDB, it’s easy to cope with cases of failures. Huge numbers of replicas give out increased protection and data availability against database downtimes like rack failures, multiple machine failures, data center failures, or even network partitions. 
• GridFS: Without complicating your stack, any size of files can be stored. GridFS feature divides files into smaller parts and stores them as separate documents. 
• Schema-less database: It is a schema-less database written in C++. 
• Document-oriented storage: It uses the BSON format, which is a JSON-like format. 
• Procedures: MongoDB JavaScript works well as the database uses the language instead of procedures. 

Why Do You Need MongoDB Technology?

This technology overcame one of the biggest pitfalls of traditional database systems, that is, scalability. With the ever-evolving needs of businesses, their database systems also needed to be upgraded. MongoDB has exceptional scalability. It makes it easy to fetch the data and provides continuous and automatic integration. Along with these benefits, there are multiple reasons why you need MongoDB: 

• No downtime while the application is being scaled 
• Performs in-memory processing 
• Text search 
• Graph processing 
• Global replication 
• Economical 

Moreover, businesses are increasingly finding out that MongoDB is ticking all the right boxes when it comes to meeting business requirements. Here is how: 

• MongoDB provides the right mix of technology and data for competitive advantage. 
• It is most suited for mission-critical applications since it considerably reduces risks. 
• It increasingly accelerated the time to value (TTV) and lowered the total cost of ownership. 
• It builds applications that are just not possible with traditional relational databases. 

MongoDB Data Types 

MongoDB supports a wide range of data types, such as: 

• String: Must be UTF-8 valid 
• Integer: Stores a numerical value of 32-bit or 64-bit depending upon the server 
• Boolean: Stores true/ false value 
• Double: Stores floating point values 
• Min/Max keys: Compares a value against the lowest and highest BSON elements 
• Arrays: Stores arrays, lists, or multiple values into one key 
• Date: Stores the current date or time in UNIX format 
• Timestamp: Useful for keeping a record of the modifications or additions to a document 
• Object: Used for embedded documents 
• Object ID: Stores the ID of a document 
• Binary data: For storing binary data 
• Null: Stores a null value 
• Symbol: Used identically to a string but mainly for languages that have specific symbol types 
• Code: For storing JavaScript code in the document 
• Regular expression: Stores regular expression 

Advantages of MongoDB 

1. Distributed Data Platform 

• Throughout geographically distributed data centers and cloud regions, MongoDB can be run, ensuring new levels of availability and scalability. 
• With no downtime and without changing your application, MongoDB scales elastically in terms of data volume and throughput. 
• The technology gives you enough flexibility across various data centers with good consistency. 

2. Fast and Iterative Development 

• Changing business requirements will no longer affect successful project delivery in your enterprise. 
• A flexible data model with dynamic schema and powerful GUI and command-line tools makes it fast for developers to build and evolve applications. 
• Automated provisioning enables continuous integration and delivery for productive operations. 
• Static relational schemas and complex operations of RDBMS are now something from the past. 

3. Flexible Data Model 

• MongoDB stores data in flexible JSON-like documents, which makes data persistence and combining easy. 
• The objects in your application code are mapped to the document model, due to which working with data becomes easy. 
• Needless to say, schema governance controls, data access, complex aggregations, and rich indexing functionality are not compromised in any way. 
• Without downtime, one can modify the schema dynamically. 
• Due to this flexibility, a developer needs to worry less about data manipulation. 

4. Reduced TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) 

• Application developers can do their jobs way better when MongoDB is used. 
• The operations team also can perform their job well, thanks to the Atlas Cloud service. 
• Costs are significantly lowered as MongoDB runs on commodity hardware. 
• The technology gives out on-demand, pay-as-you-go pricing with annual subscriptions, along with 24/7 global support. 

5. Integrated Feature Set 

• One can get a variety of real-time applications because of analytics and data visualization, event-driven streaming data pipelines, text and geospatial search, graph processing, and in-memory performance. 
• For RDBMS to accomplish this, they require additional complex technologies, along with separate integration requirements. 

6. Long-Term Commitment 

• You would be staggered to know about the development of this technology. 
• It has garnered over 30 million downloads, 4,900 customers, and over 1,000 partners. 
• If you include this technology in your firm, then you can be sure that your investment is in the right place. 

MongoDB cannot support the SQL language for obvious reasons. MongoDB's querying style is dynamic on documents as it is a document-based query language that can be as utilitarian as SQL. MongoDB is easy to scale, and there is no need to convert or map application objects to database objects. It deploys internal memory for providing faster access to data and storing the working set. 

Drawbacks of MongoDB 

• It uses high memory for data storage 
• Document size has a limit 
• Less flexibility with querying 
• There is no transaction support 
• While it’s fast-evolving, there is a lack of updated information 

Use Cases of MongoDB 

Let’s discuss some use cases of MongoDB in this section. 

Single View

• You can quickly and easily create a single view of anything with MongoDB, even with a smaller budget. 
• A single-view application collects data from many sources and stores it in a central repository to provide a single view of anything. 
• MongoDB makes single views simple with its document model, Dynamic Schemas, and expressive query language. 
• MongoDB’s single view is widely used in financial services, government, high-tech, and retail. 

Internet of Things

• MongoDB can assist you in quickly capturing the most value from the Internet of Things. 
• MongoDB offers Data Ingestion with high speed, and it provides real-time analytics, which is helpful for IoT. Companies like Bosch and Thermofisher rely on MongoDB for IoT. 

Real-Time Analytics

• Analyze any data faster, anywhere, in real-time, with MongoDB. 
• It can store any type of data, regardless of its structure, format, or source, and regardless of how frequently it changes. 
• MongoDB is designed to run on commodity hardware, whether in your data center or the cloud, without the need for any additional gear or software. 
• MongoDB can analyze data of any structure right in the database, providing real-time results without the need for costly data warehouse loads. 
• We analyze customer account data using MongoDB to better comprehend and respond to situations. 

Payments

• To outperform the competition, payment platforms must provide a flexible, real-time, and enhanced customer experience. 
• Industry leaders use MongoDB as the backbone of their always-on, always secure, always available payments infrastructure, from consumer brands to businesses. 
• Companies like Nets Icon Solution use the payment services of MongoDB. 

Gaming

• Video games have always relied heavily on data. Data is essential for making games function better. 
• It assists in various aspects, from player profiles to telemetry matching to scoreboards. 
• The flexible document data format in MongoDB allows you to easily estimate the capacity of a player. 
• Add additional features to player profile items like achievements, progression-based unlocks, in-game money, new gear classes, and more. 
• At the data layer, use enterprise-grade security measures to keep your players safe. 
• Companies like Sega and Faceit use gaming from MongoDB. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, MongoDB is a powerful and flexible database system that offers many advantages over traditional relational databases. Its dynamic schema and ability to handle unstructured data make it ideal for modern applications that require fast and scalable performance. 

We have also seen that MongoDB's architecture is designed for horizontal scalability, allowing it to easily scale out as your application grows. With a thriving community of developers and a wide range of tools and integrations available, MongoDB is a great choice for any project.