MySQL 8.0 – Announcing GA of the MySQL Document Store

In this blog I’ll explain the big wins that come with the MySQL Document Store in the MySQL 8.0 GA.

Basically

SQL + NOSQL
= Winning Combination
= Relational + Document Store + Hybrid
= Big Win For Devs
= Big Win for DBAs
= Big Win for Data Analysts
= Big Win for LOB owners

First, let’s start by considering some modern software facts

Move faster, change rapidly
Time to market is critical
Rapid prototyping, iterate fast and frequently
Relational Models ask for schema up front
Potentially saving time later
Less variation, less code for edge cases
Easy to run in-depth analytics
Document Models do not ask for a schema
Saves time up front
Often adds operational costs in the long term
Getting Analytics from the data can be way more work
Most popular NoSQL database use similar data structures to relational databases (B+TREE)
No inherent scalability advantages
Yet behind on key functionality
Standing up multiple database technologies adds complexity for operations teams

Customers continually tell us they want to simplify their data infrastructure. They want a single database that does both NoSQL and SQL, with ACID Transaction guarantees. They do not want the complexity of adding yet another database product to an already complex stack.

Before 8.0 – many were often forced to choose multiple database solutions – SQL and NoSQL to meet both Relational and JSON Document Store challenges. Again, running multiple databases flavors is a big challenge – more software to qualify, data gets spread out, data movement overhead, hard to master many technologies, hard to secure and audit data protection, and hard to follow data access, etc., etc.

So to address the “multiple flavors of databases” dilemma, we built both support for SQL and NOSQL into MySQL database across all levels for the database stack – storage, structure, protocol, APIs, Tools, etc.

The 8.0 GA includes some new components to support SQL/NOSQL

MySQL X Plugin – to support a new doc store friendly protocol and more
A new developer API that we call “DevAPI” that makes it easy to work with MySQL 8 documents and collections
New 8.0 releases of all of our connectors with full support for this new DevAPI (except for ODBC). This includes a brand new Connector/Node.JS!
A brand new shell experience that allows working in SQL, Python, or Javascript

With these new options and features that we have added to MySQL, your business can have both schema-less and schema on the same technology stack – MySQL.
Checking off all the critical boxes of SQL and NoSQL for developers, operations, and LOB teams.

Developers:
[ x ] Schemaless
[ x ] Rapid Prototyping
[ x ] Document Model

Operations:
[ x ] Performance Management/Visibility
[ x ] Robust Replication, Backup, Restore
[ x ] Advanced Tooling Ecosystem

Business Owner:
[ x ] Don’t lose my data = ACID transactions
[ x ] Capture all my data = Extensible/Schemaless
[ x ] Products On Schedule/Time to Market = Rapid Development

With 8 you get a full stack making MySQL a “First Class” solution for Document Stores and more – like it is for relational. That meant adding

Native JSON Datatype, BSON Storage, Indexes on JSON Documents
New protocol supporting expanded capabilities needed for this and more
New CRUD-style API unifying JSON document and table access – in addition to SQL
Document Collections with Key Value Semantics
Interactive Shell “MySQL Shell” – Javascript, Python, SQL modes
Connectors that include Fluent NoSQL CRUD APIs
- Java, New NodeJS, NET, C++/C, PHP, Python, as well as other community
- Method Chaining and Pipelining
- Supports Combined Document and Relational

With these additions, and more to come, MySQL can take you beyond relational – fully embracing a

Document Store Stack
Relational Stack
Hybrid Stack – Collections and Tables data working together

Leveraging the flexibility of Document Stores with the power of the analytics, the stability of ACID, and proven performance. All together.

Lots of Wins

Developers Win – You get JSON with Fluent CRUD APIs across most languages
DBAs Win – Avoid being stretched across to many types of databases. Avoid the “Jack of all trades, master of none” issue – Focus on MySQL
Data Analysts Win – Get to all the data. Design with whichever tool works best. SQL is powerful, proven analytics, etc., but then maybe sometimes NoSQL methods work as well.
LOB owners Win – products to market sooner, security, data integrity

Finally – we want to thank all those who provided feedback during the DMRs (aka Pre-GA releases) of the various parts of the MySQL Document Store. Very critical and much appreciated. Keep the requests coming.

Also – a big thanks to devs with new drivers to release or in progress in the MySQL Community.

Interested in learning more. Here’s a few links to check out.

If you’ve got questions, ideas, needs, or feedback. Want to create a new driver. etc.