Learn More About Key Value Databases
What are Key Value Databases?
Key value databases are arguably the simplest of NoSQL databases. Unlike relational databases, which rely on primary and foreign keys to be able to find and connect data, key value databases utilize a single main identifier—the key—and associate that with a data point, array of data, or blob—a value. Key value databases can only be queried by the key itself. Key names can be uniform resource identifiers or URI, hashes, filenames, or anything else that is entirely unique from other keys. In the same way, values can be just about any data.
Key Benefits of Key Value Databases
- Simple and lightweight
- Built for speed
- Data type-agnostic
Why Use Key Value Databases?
Key value databases are designed for speed. Because they require minimal input for querying compared to other databases, and because they store so simply, key value databases can return query results near instantly.
Key value databases are optimal for situations with constant read/write operations or situations requiring low latency and lower operational demand than a relational database. Some example use cases follow.
E-commerce shopping carts — Key value databases work fantastically for temporary, lightweight listings, which makes them perfect for storing customer shopping carts while they order products online.
Online session information — Need to be able to keep a log of user session data over the course of being logged onto a device, utilizing your website, etc.? Key value databases make it simple to track and store activity information, including which pages were accessed, on-page actions a user took, and more. This information can fuel customer product recommendations, inform trends, and create more data-driven insights for businesses.
Cache — Key value databases are a great option for storing information that gets accessed often but rarely, if ever, gets modified. So, key value databases can serve as effective cache in these situations.
Who Uses Key Value Databases?
Like most other databases, database administrators and teams are the ones who will most often interact with key-value store solutions. That being said, developers and support teams will also use these solutions frequently – developers, for integrating databases with their code, and support teams, for root cause investigation, troubleshooting, etc. Key value databases in particular might not have as wide a usage range outside these groups because of, oddly enough, their simplicity. They’re not as applicable as some kinds of databases—like relational or graph—in more general business settings that lean into more tabular or relationship-oriented data grouping, or that might need often and significant editing.
Key Value Databases Features
In-memory residence — Most value databases are built in such a way that they can be run in-memory as opposed to off a storage drive. This improves transaction speeds and also is a testament to the lightweight nature of these databases.
Speed — Whether a user is writing to the database or querying from it, key-value databases offer greater speed and responsiveness compared to other kinds of databases.
Scalability — No matter how much data may need to go into the database, value databases will be able to keep up.
Integration — Key value databases should be able to integrate easily with other systems and tools. Should there be specific integrations you’d need your key-value store to have, check with both the key-value store vendor and community, as well as those of any solutions with which you might be integrating.
Other Features of Key Value Databases: Audit logs, Authentication, Integrated cache, Multi-model, Role-based authorization
Potential Issues with Key Value Databases
Value returns — Most value databases, when queried, return the entire value associated with a key. While generally this is beneficial, if you’ve stored multiple pieces of information within a single value, querying for its key may return more information than you wanted. If planning to use a key-value database to store multiple items of information within a value, be sure that the database you choose has the ability to sift information out of an array value, or you have an alternate way to compensate for an array of information being returned.
Value updates — Key value databases, by nature of their design, require that the entire value be updated when a value is modified. If you anticipate your values consistently having multiple pieces of information within them, consider a key-value database that will let you have more fine-tuned control over modification, or perhaps consider a different type of database altogether. If you anticipate constant modifications and numerous pieces of information being associated to a single identifying data point (key), perhaps consider a relational, graph, or document database instead.
