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Multi-Model Databases: The Swiss Army Knife of Data Architecture
Multi-model databases are able to store, index and query across more than one model. Multi-model means that the database uses different database architectures to model data in more than one way, like standard relational, hierarchical, document-oriented, graph or key-value. The rationale is that each of the different types of models excel at different use cases.
Ken Krupa, CTO at MarkLogic, said that “all of those models are important, and you want to maintain them all. You want to harmonize them in a way as opposed to trying to mash them into a single model.”
Sanjeev Mohan, analyst at Garner, said that “there will be some types of databases that are not ideally suited for multi-model and they may stay separate, such as graph databases, which are usually a different structure and it’s not easy to link graph databases with relational databases. But the movement towards multi-model is only going to increase.”
Marklogic quotes one analyst, saying that “it’s no longer about relational vs. non, we’re in the multi-model database generation now.”