Reasons Why MongoDB Is A Good Replacement For Memcached

Over the past decade, there has been a surge in demand for alternatives for Non-relational databases – known as NoSQL Databases. Traditional SQL databases are relational because a table in the database can be related to another table. Each table in an SQL database contains multiple fields where every single row is data.

In an SQL table, every data has the same schema, so the data being inserted must follow the schema even if some fields are not present.

MongoDB, unlike Legacy systems, is a document-type database with the added benefit of scalability and flexibility without compromising on performance. Data in NoSQL does not need to have all fields present.

This article will discuss the key advantages of MongoDB over Memcached and its growing adoption and support.

MongoDB vs Memcached

MongoDB Competitive Advantages Over Memcached

To better understand MongoDB’s advantages over its competitors, it is important to understand what Memcached is and its drawbacks.

So what is Memcached? Memcached, as the name suggests, is a high-performance memory caching system. It is open-source software that is typically used to cache database data, API calls, or page rendering chunks in RAM to increase performance.

Memcached performs relatively better than other open-source software but it has considerable drawbacks that make it a poor choice:

  • The in-memory key-value storage system in Memcached has an extremely fast response time. However, it stores data temporarily and loses that data if a memory cache instance fails.
  • The Multi-thread architecture enables vertical scaling, but the data cannot be viewed, which makes debugging difficult.
  • Being open-source software, there is a vast treasure trove of solutions to problems. But lack of security features means firewalls have to be used.

Memcached allows users to have access to data at lightning-fast speeds. It is scalable and open-source, and easy to set up and use. Regardless, its inability to manage large data sets, its static nature, and its lack of security make it unfavorable for businesses and startups.

MongoDB, on the other hand, enables developers to build easily, adapt quickly and scale readily. The open-source NoSQL software has fundamentally changed the way databases operate cost-effectively and conveniently.

MongoDB has considerable advantages over its competitors:

Flexible Document Schemas

MongoDB’s flexible document style model allows you to manipulate any kind of data structure very easily, making it essentially schema-less. Its BSON format, inspired by JSON, allows you to have objects in the same collection with multiple sets of fields. This is a considerable advantage for small business startups with a vague business model, with future possibilities of changes in data management.

MongoDB still supports fixed schemas and validating data, but this flexibility gives MongoDB considerable advantages when dealing with real-world data and handling changes when required.

Code-Native Data Access

Most databases force their users to use heavy wrappers to get data into Object form for programs. This can be taxing and time-consuming for the systems and waste valuable in development.

MongoDB represents data in a document format, meaning that data can be accessed directly in any language using data structures native to the language. This reduces the time that may unnecessarily be used in wrappers.

Change-Friendly Design

MongoDB is designed for change. What does this mean? MongoDB allows users to change their schemas without having to take down their websites. This allows users to change the structure of their data while writing new data to MongoDB simultaneously! No downtime nor disruptions make it change-friendly for the user, saving considerable time in the process.

Powerful Querying and Analytics

MongoDB’s fundamental design makes it a powerful tool for querying. It makes data easy to access and rarely requires joins and transactions. Few transformations are required to store and retrieve data making data readily available at lightning-fast speeds.

Its powerful MongoDB Query Language (MQL) is MongoDBs greatest strength. It allows users to dive deep into documents and perform complex analytics with just a few lines of JSON.

Easy Horizontal Scale-Out

Horizontal scaling means bringing in additional nodes to share the load. This is a difficult task in relational databases due to the difficulty in spreading out related data across nodes.

Since collections are self-contained and not coupled relationally, MongoDB allows databases to be distributed simply across multiple nodes.

Performance

In the speed of MongoDB vs. other SQL database debates, MongoDB usually comes out on top. MongoDB does not provide magically greater performance over SQL. Consider a design that persists a lot of information about a complicated entity. This can easily take up multiple tables in an SQL Database. MongoDB allows you to store this as a single document in a single collection. This is where MongoDB enables superior performance.

MongoDB can accept large amounts of unstructured data compared to its SQL counterparts, thanks to its slave and master replication system. MongoDB doesn’t restrict its users to vendor lock, which helps users improve on its performance. 

MongoDB has considerable advantages over Memcached and traditional relational databases. It is fast, easy to use, scalable, user-friendly, change-friendly, and saves tons of time for users. If you are planning on using MongoDB, here’s a guide on how to install MongoDB on AWS.

Growing Adoption And Support For MongoDB

One of the biggest challenges faced by traditional vendors is their tendency to undervalue convenience. Organizational buyers are less focused on cost and more on reliability and management. Their developer counterparts are more concerned about cost and availability i.e., convenience.

This in and of itself has caused a major shift in the developer environment, which has a major influence on the executive space. Traditional procurements are fracturing in the face of open-source software as developers are building what they want when they want.

Linux, MongoDB are some of the technologies that have taken off because of their ease of use compared to their legacy counterparts. The key here again is convenience. This is one of the things that draws developers towards MongoDB. Its data model, flexibility, and ease of use make it very attractive and have led to many companies embracing it.

MongoDB Market Metrics

The key market metrics of MongoDB in use today is as seen as of 2020 is as follows:

 

  • MongoDB has had Over 175million downloads
  • Has more than 26000+ customers in more than 100 countries. 50% belonging to the Fortune 100
  • Named the developers most requested database to use in the 2020 Stack Overflow developer survey
  • 1.5+ million registrations for University courses.

MongoDB has been named a leader in the Forrester Wave™: Big Data NoSQL, Q1 2019 and the Forrester Wave™: Database-As-A-Service Q2 2019. It has become the highest placed non-relational database in DB ranking engines.

With growing support from developers and an ever-increasing adoption in the executive environment, MongoDB has brought in a revolution in the DB work environment. It is a platform built by developers and aims to leave all forms of archaic database technology in the dust.

Final Thoughts

As we have seen, MongoDB has considerable advantages over its competitors. Its performance metrics and convenience make it a worthy contender to use for the average developer. However, in the end, It comes down to the user and their requirements. There may be some unexpected hidden problem a user might encounter. However, its large community and vast documentation make the problems easy to tackle.

MongoDB itself is not perfect. However, Its security, durability, availability, scalability, operability, and change-friendly nature more than makeup for its flaws. They are making it ideal for small startups as well as fast-moving enterprise applications.

Avatar for Emad Bin Abid
Emad Bin Abid

I'm a software engineer who has a bright vision and a strong interest in designing and engineering software solutions. I readily understand that in today's agile world the development process has to be rapid, reusable, and scalable; hence it is extremely important to develop solutions that are well-designed and embody a well-thought-of architecture as the baseline. Apart from designing and developing business solutions, I'm a content writer who loves to document technical learnings and experiences so that peers in the same industry can also benefit from them.

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