In recent years, enterprises have adopted various types of non-relational databases which are commonly referred as NoSQL databases. With increasingly sensitive data being stored in NoSQL databases, security issues have become growing concerns.
they walked out.. Because they couldn’t find a table…’
-Anonymous
Though NoSQL database has generated a lot of enthusiasm, but there are many obstacles associated with it and hence there is a need to overcome them before they can appeal to mainstream enterprises. Let’s have a close view of these business challenges which enterprises face in terms of data analytics, reporting and security:
1: Fails As A Support System –
Businesses always look for reassurance besides timely and competent support, if a key system fails. All RDBMS vendors go miles long to provide a high level of enterprise support, but NoSQL systems are open source projects which are small start-ups without any support resources, global reach or any credibility of Microsoft, Oracle or IBM.
2: Poorly Equipped in Accordance of Analytics and BI –
Business mines information from corporate databases in order to improve efficiency and competitiveness and you cannot deny from the fact that business intelligence is a key IT issue for almost all medium to large organizations. NoSQL databases just offer a few facilities for ad-hoc query and analysis. Even a simple query in NoSQL database requires significant programming expertise and hence commonly used Business Intelligence tools do not provide connectivity to NoSQL. Some relief is however offered by solutions such as HIVE or PIG ( which offers easier access to data in Hadoop clusters).
3: Incompetent Administration and Programmers –
The current design of NoSQL fails to perform as a great admin solution. NoSQL today requires a lot of proficiency to install and a hell lot of efforts to maintain. There are millions of developers in every business segment who are familiar with concepts and programming of RDBMS. This is completely untrue in the case of NoSQL. Almost every NoSQL developer is in learning mode. Though the situation will be addressed with the desired solution but as of now, it is quite challenging to find an experienced and proficient NoSQL expert.
4: Weak Authentication and Encryption –
Security is a major concern for IT infrastructures but security in NoSQL databases is quite weak. Even the authentication and encryption is very weak to implement. Certain security issues which are associated with NoSQL database are:
- Very weak password storage,
- Cannot use external encryption tools like LDAP, Kerberos etc,
- Weak authentication both between client and servers,
- Lack of encryption support for the data files,
- Data at rest is Unencrypted,
- Encryption isn’t available for client communication.
5: Immature, Too Early To Consider –
We all know that RDBMS systems have been around for a long time. RDBMS systems are stable and very richly functional but most of the NoSQL alternatives are in their pre-production version with many such key features yet to be implemented.
Conclusion
NoSQL databases are becoming progressively vital part of the database landscape. In certain scenarios, NoSQL databases are of great use, their use is irreplaceable and their presence yields beneficial results both to the application framework and to the business system as a whole. Enterprises, nowadays are experimenting with upcoming technologies, hence, NoSQL should not only be used for experimental purpose but must be potentially considered in order to reap its real benefits. There can be instances where a NoSQL database does not seem of any use, which is why there is a dire need to keenly know what to use where? Because as they say, the trick does not always lie in the how. 😉
References: Researchgate, Infoworld, Perficient, Dataversity, Techgig, Search Data Management.
Ajeet Singh
