Top 3 Cloud Database Platforms
MongoDB vs FaunaDB vs Firebase
1.MongoDB
MongoDB is an open-source document database and leading NoSQL database. MongoDB is written in C++. It is a document database, which means it stores data in JSON-like documents. This is the most natural way to think about data and is much more expressive and powerful than the traditional row/column model. This can be used to create and deploy a highly scalable and performance-oriented database.
MongoDB work in two layers –
- Application Layer and
- Data layer
Application Layer is also known as the Final Abstraction Layer, it has two parts, first is a Frontend (User Interface) and the second is Backend (server). The frontend is the place where the user uses MongoDB with the help of a Web or Mobile. This web and mobile include web pages, mobile applications, android default applications, IOS applications, etc. The backend contains a server which is used to perform server-side logic and also contain drivers or mongo shell to interact with MongoDB server with the help of queries.
These queries are sent to the MongoDB server present in the Data Layer. Now, the MongoDB server receives the queries and passes the received queries to the storage engine. MongoDB server itself does not directly read or write the data to the files or disk or memory. After passing the received queries to the storage engine, the storage engine is responsible to read or write the data in the files or memory. It manages the data.
2.FaunaDB
FaunaDB is a distributed, strongly consistent OLTP NoSQL database that is ACID-compliant and offers a multi-model interface. It has an active-active architecture and can span clouds as well as continents. Fauna DB supports document, relational, graph, and temporal data sets from a single query. In addition to its own FQL query language, the product supports Graph QL, with SQL planned for the future.
Fauna DB is the first database to use the Calvin cross-shard transactional protocol, which allows for single-phase commits without reliance on clocks and loss of consistency. Fauna DB also uses the Raft consensus system for individual shards. Fauna DB claims architectural innovations at every layer. The biggest innovation is probably the use of Calvin as a distributed transaction protocol instead of the Google Spanner or older Google Percolator protocols.
Fauna DB implements a semi-structured, schema-free, object-relational data model that is a superset of the relational, document, object-oriented, and graph paradigms. The data model allows enforcing constraints, creating indexes, and joining across multiple document entities. It also offers polyglot APIs mediated by drivers for many different programming languages. In short, the Fauna DB data model allows you to do whatever you need with your database in a unified way.
Fauna DB provides both administrative and application-level identity and security using tokens. You can access the database securely through API servers, or directly from your mobile, browser, and embedded applications.
3. Firebase
Firebase Realtime Database is a cloud-hosted database. Data is stored as JSON and synchronized in real-time to every connected client. When you build cross-platform apps with our iOS, Android, and JavaScript SDKs, all of your clients share one Realtime Database instance and automatically receive updates with the newest data.
Key capabilities
- Real-time data synchronization
- Offline data synchronization
- Accessible from Client Devices
- Scale across multiple databases
How does it work?
The Firebase Realtime Database lets you build rich, collaborative applications by allowing secure access to the database directly from client-side code. Data is persisted locally, and even while offline, real-time events continue to fire, giving the end-user a responsive experience. When the device regains connection, the Realtime Database synchronizes the local data changes with the remote updates that occurred while the client was offline, merging any conflicts automatically.
The Realtime Database provides a flexible, expression-based rules language, called Firebase Realtime Database Security Rules, to define how your data should be structured and when data can be read from or written to. When integrated with Firebase Authentication, developers can define who has access to what data, and how they can access it.
The Realtime Database is a NoSQL database and as such has different optimizations and functionality compared to a relational database. The Realtime Database API is designed to only allow operations that can be executed quickly. This enables you to build a great real-time experience that can serve millions of users without compromising on responsiveness. Because of this, it is important to think about how users need to access your data and then structure it accordingly.
Implementation path
- Integrate the Firebase Realtime Database SDKs
- Create Realtime Database References
- Set Data and Listen for Changes
- Enable Offline Persistence
- Secure your data
Choose a Database: Cloud Firestore or Realtime Database
Firebase offers two cloud-based, client-accessible database solutions that support real-time data syncing:
- Cloud Firestore is Firebase’s newest database for mobile app development. It builds on the successes of the Realtime Database with a new, more intuitive data model. Cloud Firestore also features richer, faster queries and scales further than the Realtime Database.
- Realtime Database is Firebase’s original database. It’s an efficient, low-latency solution for mobile apps that require synced states across clients in real-time.
