Choose Right Database for App | Choose a Database Platform

May 12, 2020

Data is a key necessity for any business or software to make informed decisions, study top trends, solve real problems. The database is a collection of real-world data. It organizes the data and enables us to query, sort, retrieve, and manipulate the data in countless ways.

Stating Database Management System is a software tool used to manage data in a specific manner to access the database whenever it requires. It allows us to store, recover, modify, remove, and search the data from a database. It manages primary aspects of a database from maintaining data manipulation, data integrity, data consistency to data security, including user authentication.

Different Database systems have been used by various sectors, namely Banking, Airlines, Universities, Sales, Human Resource, Finance, etc. But when it comes to choosing a database for a mobile app, it requires a little more attention and research.

An app may have thousands to millions of users and require time-to-time updates. Therefore, a database for a mobile app should be able to handle millions of users’ data and frequent updates. Choosing the right database for your app is crucial also as it requires to secure users’ data and render optimum experience in a reward.

We want to help you choose a database platform that provides high-level protection of the data and reduces mobile application development time. After our research on how to select the right database for apps, it appears that the following things should be kept in mind.

Database Models:

Database models are also known as schemas that used to represent the structure and format of the database. It is vital to choose the right database model as it ensures the proper integration of the database with the app. Besides, data modeling will help you to map your app’s features into the data structure effectively.

There are different types of database models with different looks and operations from each other. You can start with a conceptual model and define the entities, associated attributes, and their corresponding relations. And gradually practice with structural consideration to select the right database that can serve your app the best.

Define the Structure of data:

Want to preserve time and efforts to fix any data-related problems beforehand? If yes, then you should work on the data structure that determines how to store and retrieve the data. There are apps called Synchronized app that stores all the data on the mobile device and allows access offline as well.

On the contrary, online apps rely on their server to access the stored data to function, such as eCommerce apps. Thus, it is paramount to select the right data structure for the right database, as applications deal with data in various formats.

Volume of data

Every database offers storage of a megabyte, terabyte, and petabyte scales and lets you choose & adjust your app data storage. So, when looking for the best database for applications, you have to estimate the size of the data your app will require to store and retrieve it in the present and future.

The volume of the data in your database somewhat impacts on performance and speed. Subsequently, it would not be wondering that queries run slower as the data grows in the database.

If an application needs access to its database in real-time to perform essential tasks, it is better to choose a database that is optimized with analytics and aligned with standard semantics.

Data Security

Data Security is a primary requirement to look into while selecting a database. Always explore the safety measures implemented by the database in case of any system crash or failure. Besides, at the time of synchronization and decentralization storage, it requires access, store, and transmit data securely.

Further, it needs to address authentication (you may need to integrate public, custom or standard authentication), data in motion, data on rest, reads and writes data, etc. Altogether, a database should have optimum measures to protect and secure data against compromises of their confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Speed & scalability

You should know what your app data needs right from the structure of your data to the size of the data, and the speed required to write and read the data. The reason being, databases are designed differently to optimize read-heavy and write-heavy applications.

A database with good scalability handles various users simultaneously by scaling up or out the input/output needs of applications. Examples of such a scalable database can be NoSQL databases and SQL databases.

Data conflicts resolving

Data conflicts can occur when a user modifies the data simultaneously that has been changed by a user on a different device. Such data conflicts between the data version is a quite common issue. For this reason, a robust database system is essential to resolve such conflicts.

However, the conflict resolution database system should be flexible in resolving conflicts across devices, users, cloud systems, and other third-party integrations.

Multiple databases possibility

When you are modeling your app data, you may come to know that your app needs to store data in a specific data structure. Or when your application is gaining more traffic that the replication cannot keep up with it.

Then you need more than one database for your data storage; you should choose a database that owns any set of specific data. This one will act as an authoritative database for those entities and an additional database working with the same collection of data may have a copy, but will not be the owner of this data.

Top Database Pros & Cons

MySQL

MySQL is an open-source and versatile database written in C & C++. You can select from a variety of storage engines that allows you to change the functionality of the tool data from different table types. MySQL, with an easy user-interface it is a reliable and multi-threaded SQL database.

Suitable - When a robust database management tool is required under budget.

Pros

Offer numerous functionality for paid and a free engine as well

Variety of user interfaces can be implemented as per requirements

Flexible to work with other DB such as DB2 and Oracle

Security encryption for all the password traffic

Cons

Not a community-driven

Slow updates and no built-in support for XML or OLAP

Take a longer time to do things than other systems do automatically

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is one of the first database management systems that allow managing structure and unstructured data as well. You can host it in many environments, be it virtual, physical, or cloud-based environments. It is powerful and relational-database. Its PostgreSQL 9.5 offers large data volume and improved security.

Suitable - When the ability to select the user interface and use JSON required and budget is limited.

Pros

Highly customizable and scalable and can handle terabytes data

It has a variety of predefined functions

Supports JSON

Cons

Confusing configuration

Large bulk operations or read queries can get slower the speed

Oracle 12c

Oracle has been consistently on the top in the lists of famous databases. It introduced its first version of the database management tool in the late 70s, and numerous editions are available today. The new version Oracle 12c created for the cloud with the ability to be hosted on one or more than one server.

Suitable - When organizations need to handle gigantic databases and require a variety of features.

Pros

Latest innovations and features available

A robust database management tool that can cater to your any data need

Cons

It can cost an arm and a leg to smaller organizations

It requires significant resources after installing, and hardware update may require even to implement Oracle

Summary

Mobile apps are subject to content change with any feature improvement or new feature update, and ultimately it affects the database. You may then need to change or add other databases if you would not have selected suitable ones at first. You need to predefine and estimate your app’s data requirements.

The other things to consider when choosing a database have mentioned and clarified in the blog that will surely help you to choose the right one. For any assistant, you are required for your database management system hire app developer from Kody Technolab. We will assist you from start to finish.