How Cisco is using the NOSQL Database: MongoDB
MongoDB is a general purpose, document-based, distributed database built for modern application developers and for the cloud era. MongoDB is a NOSQL database which means it is a Schemaless database. No Schema gives more flexibility to the database for adding any new field on the fly. In MongoDb a database table is referred as collections and the row of data is known as documents.
In this blog I will be explaining how Cisco solved their database problem using MongoDB
How Cisco is using MongoDB ?
Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking, transforming how people connect, communicate and collaborate. In November 2011, Cisco launched WebEx Social (previously known as Quad), an enterprise collaboration platform designed for today’s social, mobile, visual and virtual workforce. When their existing relational database needed a NoSQL extension to power the collaborative workspace, Cisco turned to MongoDB as their NoSQL database of choice.
The Problem
With their existing relational database, complex SQL queries against highly normalized schema were time consuming and Cisco had little room to scale horizontally. Additionally, it was difficult to manage schema upgrades and migrate data from release to release.
WebEx Social’s rapid evolution required expanded data store capabilities and the ability to build successful new social features. Cisco sought an open source, NoSQL solution that was scalable, flexible and met the product’s hardcore enterprise needs: secure, mature commercial support, able to deliver consistent back up and disaster recovery, and easy to integrate with legacy systems
Why MongoDB
MongoDB now serves as the primary real-time data store for WebEx Social’s social features that are write-heavy in nature. For example, a social activity feed that notifies thousands of users depending on some complex privacy and visibility rules. Additionally, Cisco uses MongoDB to perform some social network analytics. With MongoDB’s lightweight MapReduce feature, Cisco developers are able to automatically generate, with ease, recommendations such as users to connect with, communities to join and interesting content to view, as well as statistics, including top contributors, most popular colleagues and most downloaded docs.
Features of MongoDB
- Easy to implement document model
- Millisecond response time
- Highly scalable
- High Availability
Results
The Cisco development team is constantly evaluating the most effective product roadmap to drive customer success on WebEx Social. MongoDB provides Cisco with a user friendly platform for customers and an easy, powerful technology for developers.
