MongoDB

MongoDB has topped the charts for two consecutive years (2013-14) and has been the runner-up in 2015.

MongoDB is among the several databases that arrived in the mid-2000s under the NoSQL category. It broke the traditional method of storing data in tables and rows by storing it in JSON like structures with dynamic schemas, which was later termed as BSON by MongoDB.

The creators of MongoDB say that the name was derived from the word ‘humongous’ to support large and massive amounts of data. DB software went commercial in 2007 and then open source in 2009.

Written in C++, MongoDB breaks out from traditional RDBMS ideology and hosts a vast set of features. Here is the list of some of them: 1. Stores records in the form of documents, and corresponds

to data types in most programming languages 2. Embedded documents and arrays reduce the need for

expensive joins 3. Dynamic schema supports fluent polymorphism 4. Full index support on all fields 5. Replication and high availability across LANs and WANs 6. Automatic scaling via auto-sharding and replica sets

The list of features is huge but I will stop here, so readers can explore the software for themselves.