Enterprise NoSQL Silver bullet or poison pill? discusses the pros and cons of NoSQL databases compared to SQL databases. While SQL databases will remain prevalent, NoSQL databases offer alternative data storage options with different tradeoffs. NoSQL systems typically relax constraints of SQL like schema rigidity in exchange for implementation flexibility, but this comes at the cost of features like joins and global indexes. NoSQL also shifts the system of record away from a single database, requiring applications to handle consistency and creating multiple copies of data to scale.