Chapter 1. NoSQL: It’s about making intelligent choices
Figure 1.1. In this figure, we see how the business drivers volume, velocity, variability, and agility apply pressure to the single CPU system, resulting in the cracks. Volume and velocity refer to the ability to handle large datasets that arrive quickly. Variability refers to how diverse data types don’t fit into structured tables, and agility refers to how quickly an organization responds to business change.
Figure 1.2. The map and reduce functions are ways of partitioning large datasets into smaller chunks that can be transformed on isolated and independent transformation systems. The key is isolating each function so that it can be scaled onto many servers.
Chapter 2. NoSQL concepts
Figure 2.1. UNIX pipes as an example of reusing simple tools to create new functions. This figure concatenates (puts together) all chapter files in a book into a single file and counts the number of figures in all chapters. With UNIX pipes, we do this by stringing together three simple commands: concatenate (cat), a search function called grep, and word count (wc). No additional code is needed; each function takes the output from the previous function and processes it.
Figure 2.2. Application tiers are used to simplify system design. The NoSQL movement is concerned with minimizing bottlenecks in overall system performance, and this sometimes means moving key components out of one tier and putting them into another tier.