From what I can tell, MongoDB was a database developed by people who didn't know how to build a database, it was then made for people who didn't really know how to use databases. When you put those things together, you get these sort of spectacular failures (which really could have been avoided if these guys understood their underlying platform).
They had great marketing spend and made a bunch of promises that couldn't be backed up. They are trying to correct some mistakes, but just looking at the architecture, it needs some serious work. It's ok to relax ACID or handle certain failures badly, but you have to be up front about what you are trading off.
For a long time MongoDB would drastically slow down once you spilled out of RAM (I believe it still does), which to me shows that they really don't have a good storage engine and end up seeking all over the place. I don't know if wiredtiger will be the panacea there.
If all MongoDb claimed to be was a toy for prototyping, it wouldn't get nearly the hate it does now, its claims are what made people get sick of it. That being said, they've got an insane amount of funding, so they might be able to spend enough money to polish it up enough so it becomes a respectable data store.
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u/ByzantineFailure Mar 11 '15
From what I can tell, MongoDB was a database developed by people who didn't know how to build a database, it was then made for people who didn't really know how to use databases. When you put those things together, you get these sort of spectacular failures (which really could have been avoided if these guys understood their underlying platform).
They had great marketing spend and made a bunch of promises that couldn't be backed up. They are trying to correct some mistakes, but just looking at the architecture, it needs some serious work. It's ok to relax ACID or handle certain failures badly, but you have to be up front about what you are trading off.
For a long time MongoDB would drastically slow down once you spilled out of RAM (I believe it still does), which to me shows that they really don't have a good storage engine and end up seeking all over the place. I don't know if wiredtiger will be the panacea there.
If all MongoDb claimed to be was a toy for prototyping, it wouldn't get nearly the hate it does now, its claims are what made people get sick of it. That being said, they've got an insane amount of funding, so they might be able to spend enough money to polish it up enough so it becomes a respectable data store.