# Why NoSQL?

## You Don't Want Structured Query Language

- No cramming your report-shaped problem into a Cartesian-product-shaped solution
- No special rules for NULL values
- No well-thumbed reference manuals

## You Need True Horizontal Scalability

- More users/more queries? Add more hardware.
- Handle high ratio of writes to reads

## Your Application Doesn't Map Well to Fixed Schemas

- Better for rapid prototyping
- Data enrichments don't require table rebuilds
- A more natural fit for heterogeneous, non- or poorly-specified datasets

## Your Application is Friendly to Rich Data

- Streaming media
- BLOBs that you need to match against
- Keep in mind that there are no standards

## Performance & Latency are More Important to You Than (continuous) Consistency

- High-traffic websites
- Personalized websites
- Mostly-siloed datasets

Next: NoSQL Implementations