SQL Server MVP and my personal friend Jacob Sebastian has published my interview on subject of Beyond Relational on his famous site Beyond Relational. Jacob is quite known for his T-SQL challenges as well. If you have not ever tried one, I suggest you give it a try and you will be addicted to it.
Beyond Relational is interesting term. In simple terms, this means that it is beyond relations to traditional RDBMS. There are so many things to talk about when we stop thinking in terms of relationals. When we say “beyond relationals”, this does not mean that we move away from the relational database. In fact, for me words suggest quite the opposite; they imply strong ties to relational databases. It would not be termed “beyond” if it had nothing to do with relationals. The science of “beyond relational” picks up relationals where traditional RDBMS stop.
Please read my complete interview here and let me know what you think about Beyond Relational.
What Beyond Relational Means in Practice
In SQL Server 2008 the idea came to life through features that store and query data that does not fit neatly into rows and columns, while keeping it inside the same database engine:
- The
geometryandgeographytypes for spatial data such as maps and locations. - FILESTREAM for large files like documents and images, stored in the file system but managed by SQL Server.
- The
hierarchyidtype for tree structures like org charts. - Sparse columns for tables with many columns that are mostly empty.
- XML support and full-text search, which were already there before 2008.
The benefit is that one backup, one security model and one query language cover all of it. You do not need a separate system just because some of your data is a map point or a PDF. Later versions kept the same direction with features such as JSON functions and graph tables.
When you have to choose between one of these features and a separate product, ask one question: does this data need to stay consistent with the rest of your database? If the answer is yes, keeping it inside SQL Server is usually the simpler choice.
Published by Pinal Dave on SQLAuthority. More of my work at pinaldave.com.
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1 Comment. Leave new
Pinal, you were Spot on the features which extend sql server 2008 beyond a traditional relational db. One of the features which caught my attention was spatial data, able to deal with geographies and represent them in a database in a more meaningful manner. It would interesting and challenging to work on a project involving spatial data.