Comparative Analysis and Recommendation of NoSQL Databases for an Online

Retail Company

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 Comparative Analysis and Recommendation of NoSQL Databases for an Online

Retail Company

Introduction

In today's online retail environment, the sheer volume of data that is being generated

requires efficient and, if possible, scalable database solutions. Relational databases that are

widely used today are not built to meet with volume, variety, and velocity of modern data (Punia

et al., 2023, p. 1). Therefore, this report seeks to assess whether the two types of NoSQL

databases- MongoDB and Cassandra can suit an online retail firm that undergoes a change

considering challenges of scalability, data intercourse, and performance of relational databases.

Company Requirements and Data Characteristics

To achieve this, there is a need to analyze the organizational requirements and data

properties so that to meet the specific needs of the company by the chosen NoSQL database. Key

considerations include:

Data Volume and Scalability

The company has observed massive growth in the number of transactions with customers

hence large data volumes. More so, the traffic during the sales events must be managed, and

hence, scalability is important to accommodate the traffic.

Data Variety

The system should be able to handle data of different formats: numeric, categorical, ones

within tables and forms, and free-form text.

Consistency and Availability

 The retail business needs high consistency for the transactional data such as inventories

and high availability to ensure the services run continuously.

Performance

High IO operations per second are required for the fast response of recommendations and

quick processing of orders.

Overview of NoSQL Databases

MongoDB

MongoDB belongs to the family of NoSQL which has a free JSON-like schema for data.

Its key features include:

 Scalability: Object scaling through partitioning / horizontal scaling.

 Flexibility: This is because dynamic schema designing enables the

specific handling of semi-structured and unstructured data.

 Querying Capabilities: Complex query language with facilities for

adding new and ad hoc queries.

Cassandra

Cassandra offers a distributed, column-family-based architecture interface for NoSQL

this is meant for high availability and large scalability. Its key features include:

 Scalability: A linear scalability that can be easily achieved with a

decentralized system.

 Performance: Designed to perform high-speed writes.

  Reliability: Redundancy is the characteristic that provides fail-safe

functionality for recurrent service demands.

Evaluation Criteria

Scalability

 MongoDB: It is sharded, which means that it can scale horizontally. These

implementation techniques are useful when it is necessary to scale moderately or highly.

 Cassandra: Is highly scalable with its masterless architecture that makes

it to be free from the issues of system failure.

Performance

 MongoDB: Provides relatively high IOPS for mixed, read/write

operations while potentially demonstrating higher latency at higher levels of scale.

 Cassandra: Optimised for writes, therefore, it is suitable for high

ingestion volumes but not friendly for complex reads.

Data Model Compatibility

 MongoDB: Multi-purpose suited for the handling of a variety of data

types for document-based models in the retail business, providing flexibility in the

management of retail data.

 Cassandra: Non-varied query patterns work best since the structure

answers are expected in simple data structures, hence a lack of compatibility with highly,

varied data.

Flexibility and Querying Capabilities

  MongoDB: It offers high-quality querying, data aggregating, and data

transformation features.

 Cassandra: It can only handle basic select, insert, update, and delete

statements and does not support CQL joins, however, MongoDB supports the more

advanced type of query known as the aggregation query.

Criteria MongoDB Cassandra

Scalability Effective for moderate scaling Effective for large-scale

Performance Balanced for variable workloads Optimized for write-heavy scenario

Data Model Flexible document model Wide-column model

Querying Advanced querying and Limited querying capabilities

aggregation

Consistency Tunable consistency Eventual consistency

Fault Based on replica sets It has built-in peer-to-peer reliability

Tolerance

Other Criteria

 Consistency: MongoDB for example supports tunable consistency, which

means you can accurately set how accurate you want your data to be at any point in

relation to its speed of retrieval (Abbas, & Farah, 2023, p. 12). Cassandra provides

essentially only one consistency model – the eventual consistency model that puts an

emphasis on availability rather than immediate consistency.

 Fault Tolerance: Cassandra has inherent high fault tolerance; however, in

MongoDB, this can be achieved by using replica sets only.

 Comparative Analysis

Recommendation and Justification

Recommendation: MongoDB

According to the assessment, MongoDB is the most appropriate NoSQL database for the

company. It also matches up well with the company’s needs for data and the malleability that is

required for dealing with a rapidly increasing data volume and data intricacy that is characteristic

of an online retail enterprise.

Justification

1. Data Variety

The system is easily scalable and elastic, which is very useful when it comes to dealing

with different kinds of data that the company encounters such as customers' profiles, products'

catalogs, and transactional data(Peña, 2023, p. 99). This document-oriented structure enables the

storing of semi-structured data in JSON-like format. There is the likelihood of new forms of data

appearing in the future and since the above-founded problem of changing irregular data

structures is common in the retail business, flexibility is important. This flexibility in handling

different types of data is one of MongoDB's major advantages over Cassandra, which has more a

rigid wide-column approach.

2. Querying Needs

The company uses such sophisticated processes as live analysis, and query processing, to

derive business intelligence from transactions, customers, and products. In general, MongoDB
shines here because of its more expressive query language which in turn supports complex

aggregation and indexes (Saleh, 2024, p. 4). All these features facilitate fast querying and data

manipulation which forms the core of the company’s functionality. Cassandra's query capability

more or less serves the purpose but it lags in intricate aggregations thus making MongoDB a

better choice for the company in real-time data analysis.

3. Scalability

While Cassandra benefits from vastly superior scalability with the use of a peer-to-peer

structure, MongoDB's sharding is well enough to accommodate this company’s current levels of

growth. MongoDB scaling by using sharding has the functional ability to horizontally distribute

the data across several hosts which can be useful when the business is growing and experiencing

traffic and data growth (Peña, 2023, p. 96). For this scale of operation, MongoDB offers the

required scalability along with reasonable manageability without the need for the kind of

configurations high-traffic scenarios require in Cassandra.

4. Consistency

MongoDB has tunable consistency levels, making it possible for the company to optimize

either depending on the requirement of the individual transaction or operation. This is

particularly imperative in retail situations, where it remains critical to maintain all consistency

and accuracy of data that concern the transaction while unimportant data may approach eventual

consistency results. On a positive note, Cassandra provides the sense of ultimate consistency and

high availability, but these principles are not strong points, as they may cause problems with the

exactness of data within the system as soon as some instances require a quick change and
transactions (Abbas, & Farah, 2023, p. 15). MongoDB has a correct strategy of flexibility of

consistency to suit the company’s working requirements.

Conclusion

The switch to MongoDB will help a company overcome their shortcomings in data

management and allow it to implement features and queries critical when operating an online

retail business. Therefore, by adopting MongoDB as the company's document database, the firm

will be in a position to cater to these subsequent growth and transform future business needs as

well.

References

Abbas, N., & Farah, J. (2023). Optimizing E-commerce Databases: A Comparative Analysis of

SQL and NoSQL Solutions.

Peña, L. (2023). Holistic Approaches to Strategically Integrating SQL and NoSQL Solutions in

Hybrid Architectures for Optimized Performance and Versatile Data Handling. Journal

of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Management, 7(1), 93-115.

Punia, M. S., Malik, K., & Garg, V. K. (2023). Partitioning-based multi-persistence model for

multi-paradigm database. Measurement: Sensors, 25, 100594.

Saleh, K. H. M. (2024). Optimizing Enterprise Data Systems: A Comparative Study of SQL and

NoSQL Databases, Real-Time Anomaly Detection, and Secure Containerization

Techniques. International Journal of Machine Intelligence for Smart Applications, 14(8),

1-10.