Allison Kornher, a Cloud Technical Resident at Google, introduces us to Firestore, a scalable NoSQL document database. She explains the differences between SQL and NoSQL databases and the four categories of NoSQL databases. Each Firestore document belongs to a collection and is stored in key value pairs for easy management. Subcollections add to the flexibility of Firestore design. Allison gives tips for getting started with Firestore and recommends considering the CAP theorem when choosing a database type.
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insights INSIGHT
Firestore Overview
Firestore is a NoSQL document database offering flexibility.
It scales well with large datasets.
insights INSIGHT
SQL vs. NoSQL
SQL databases resemble spreadsheets with rows and columns.
NoSQL databases offer more flexibility and scalability.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Choosing a NoSQL Database
NoSQL databases have four main categories.
Choose based on your specific needs, considering CAP theorem.
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Brian Dorsey and Mark Mirchandani are talking intro to Firestore this week with fellow Googler Allison Kornher. Allison, a Cloud Technical Resident, starts the show telling us about the program and how it brought her to Firestore.
Allison takes us through the differences between SQL and NoSQL databases and describes the four categories of NoSQL databases: family, document, key value, and graph. Firestore is a scalable, flexible NoSQL document database. To illustrate the uses and benefits of Firestore, Allison walks us through a delicious pizza example. Each document in the database belongs to a collection, which is used to organize these documents. Firestore documents are assigned an identifier and can be quickly changed and called within their collections. Because these documents are stored in an implicit schema in key value pairs, developers have control over the details of database organization and data change and growth are easy to manage. The availability of subcollections further adds to the flexibility of Firestore database design.
Choosing a database type will depend on the situation, and Allison suggests this starts with a look at CAP theorem. If a document database is your database of choice, Allison gives our listeners tips for getting started with Firestore and clearing any hurdles along the way.
Allison Kornher
Allison is a Cloud Technical Resident and has worked helping startups looking to join GCP and in the Premium Tier Cloud Support organization with a focus on Storage.
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