Data Modeling for NoSQL Databases

ER (entity-relationship) modeling techniques are very mature for SQL databases, but don't translate well to many of the NoSQL databases. Practitioners new to NoSQL may also find that the lack of modeling standards is disorienting. Some approaches have emerged just in recent months however, to make the transition to NoSQL data modeling easier.

This discussion will examine numerous differences and similarities between NoSQL and relational database modeling, including:

How to model schema-less databases
Modeling notation for containment/multi-valued attributes
How to model the problem space and the solution space
Modeling graphs vs document stores vs key value databases

Ted Hills has been active in the Information Technology industry since 1975, moving gradually up through device drivers and operating systems to communications software, applications, and finally information architecture. His employers have included AT&T Bell Laboratories, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. At LexisNexis, Ted co-leads the work of establishing enterprise data architecture standards and governance processes, working with data models and business and data definitions for both structured and unstructured data. Prior to joining LexisNexis, Ted was the Enterprise Information Architecture Executive for Bank of America, where he led several enterprise reference data and data warehouse projects. Ted's work spans the spectrum from conceptual design to database and software implementation. Ted has always been an active researcher, with interests in software and data integration, data modeling notations, and improving the expressivity of languages while keeping them type-safe.

Karen Lopez is a Senior Project Manager and Architect at InfoAdvisors. She has 20+ years of experience in project and data management on large, multi-project programs. Karen is a popular speaker known for her highly interactive, practical and sometimes irreverent presentation style. She is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP, a Dun and Bradstreet MVP, an advisory committee member at Zachman International and an Advisory Board member of DAMA International. She wants you to love your data.

William Lyon is a Developer Relations Engineer at Neo Technology, stewards of the Neo4j graph database. Prior to joining Neo, William worked as software developer for several startups in the real estate, quantitative finance and predictive API spaces. William holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Montana.

Dan Myers (MBA, IQCP) is the principal educator of Data Quality Matters, an eLearning company focused on providing information and data quality learning material. Previously Dan worked as an applications developer, data modeler, and manager of data governance/data quality. Dan's fluency in Japanese enabled him to work in both the public and private sector in Japan.