NoSQL Market

Market Overview

The global NoSQL market size was valued at USD 7,142.74 million in 2022. It is estimated to reach USD 82,267.17 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 31.2% during the forecast period (2023–2031).

In contrast to the tabular relations used in relational databases, a NoSQL database provides a relational mechanism for storing and retrieving structured and unstructured data. NoSQL is widely used in cloud computing applications and has become the most preferred big data storage solution. Most NoSQL databases support the idea of "eventual consistency," in which database updates are communicated to all nodes, meaning that searches for data may not immediately return updated data or may result in reading inaccurate data. NoSQL encompasses a wide variety of database technologies developed to handle an increasing volume of data generated and stored. This data has recently increased due to the internet of things, the internet, and others. As the data sources are varied, NoSQL is widely preferred for distributed data stores with humongous data storage needs.

Highlights

• Key-value store dominates the type segment
• Web app dominates the application segment
• IT dominates the industry vertical segment
• North America is the highest shareholder in the global market

Market Dynamics

Global NoSQL Market Drivers

Rising Demand for Data Analytics

The rise in demand for data analytics to analyze data generated in numerous processes highlights vital business insights that support the market's growth. In order to analyze the data, appropriate database technology is essential. NoSQL serves this purpose in the case of unstructured data by providing support for moderate data analytics. The need for data analytics, especially on unstructured data, is expected to increase further. In addition, the big data market has increased rapidly in the past few years. For instance, the global big data and business analytics market was valued at USD 171.39 billion in 2018 and is estimated to surpass USD 512.04 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 14.80% from 2019 to 2026. The conventional database technology, RDBMS, is unsuitable for storing and analyzing big data volumes. However, Hadoop and NoSQL solutions have emerged as the most appropriate technologies for big data management. The impact of the big data market is estimated to boost the adoption of NoSQL over the forecast period.

Rise in Unstructured Data

The increase in unstructured and semi-structured data, such as blogs, files, games, and others, has risen exponentially over the past few years. This semi-structured or unstructured data is in the form of objects of data structures. Standard SQL queries are not a feasible option for analyzing object-oriented data structures. Furthermore, consistency amongst different objects related to the same applications is loose. Consistency among data attributes is essential to store data in a standard RDBMS format. In addition, NoSQL solutions comfortably address these problems associated with unstructured or semi-structured data. With NoSQL solutions, the agility of data structures is maintained with the minimum possible storage space. NoSQL solutions are also valuable for analyzing stored data. Therefore rising unstructured or semi-structured data drives the adoption of NoSQL.

Global NoSQL Market Restraint

Complexities Associated with Testing NoSQL Applications

The software testing of NoSQL database designs is complicated as compared to RDBMS. Schema-less designs make it difficult for standard processes to find database flaws. This factor is a significant limitation in adopting NoSQL in critical business applications with financial transactions. In addition, the unavailability of trained administrators is expected to limit the adoption of NoSQL among enterprises.

Additionally, the need for complex database analysis is an essential business process. However, NoSQL technologies are not capable of addressing complex queries. The redundancy in the NoSQL database could be better for critical business records. Hence, NoSQL adoption is expected to remain limited to unstructured and semi-structured data management, which needs moderate analysis. In a complex database analysis, conventional RDBMS is a feasible solution. Due to the unstructured format, NoSQL databases are difficult to test.

Global NoSQL Market Opportunities

Growing Adoption of Big Data Analytics

The adoption of big data analytics is fueled by a rise in investments in big data and business analytics solutions among numerous organizations to spur revenue development and enhance service efficiencies. Moreover, senior executives of many organizations are increasingly adopting different styles of analytics to resolve their business imperatives due to the emerging importance of big data analytics in many regions, boosting the market growth. In addition, organizations are adopting big data analytics to improve customer experience and increase the organization's efficiency, thus providing a lucrative opportunity for market growth.

Social networking applications and the developments in online gaming would generate a large amount of big unstructured data. To manage this data, NoSQL would emerge as the most appropriate technology. Furthermore, the adoption of NoSQL for enterprise big data applications would flourish in the future across verticals such as retail, telecommunications, automotive, and healthcare. A significant element anticipated to fuel the market's growth is the rise in data center investments from major players and the expansion of the number of data centers around the globe.

Regional Analysis

Based on region, the global NoSQL market is bifurcated into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.

North America Dominates the Global Market

North America is the most significant shareholder in the global NoSQL market and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 28.7% during the forecast period. North America dominated the overall NoSQL market owing to factors such as the presence of a large number of data centers and players in the region and the need to transform its existing data center infrastructure. Numerous leading companies have their presence in the North American region, especially in the U.S. Splunk Inc., which offers its NoSQL data analytics suite known as Hunk. It formed a distribution agreement with Arrow Electronics in March 2015. Further, the distribution agreement has its scope for the U.S. and Canada. Apart from the stated example, numerous companies, such as Cassandra, Couchbase, Amazon, and Neo Technologies, are present in the North American region. In addition, the higher awareness among North American users regarding the benefits of NoSQL technology is driving the adoption of NoSQL.

Asia-Pacific is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 35.3% over the forecast period. The region is a lucrative market for IT outsourcing solutions. ERP solutions are built on RDBMS technology to handle large-scale enterprise solutions. However, due to client interest or benefit realizations, Asian outsourcing companies have identified NoSQL as a helpful solution. Furthermore, graph databases are getting rapid adoption in the region due to the development of social media and gaming platforms in Asian countries such as Japan and China. Many online social platforms such as LINE, GREE, and HIKE are developed in Asian countries, which seek graph NoSQL as back-end technology. For instance, a well-known NoSQL database provider Couchbase is expected to spend a part of its investments worth USD 25 million raised in 2013 for its expansion in Japan and Korea and the commencement of new offices in China and India. In addition, KDDI, one of Japan's leading telecom operators, uses NoSQL technology to manage its cloud services platform. The MongoDB has offered its support to the ambitious project of the Government of India, known as 'Aadhar.' The NoSQL industry's leading suppliers provide their products in the market because of the anticipated significant growth of the Asian market.

Europe is expected to be a lucrative region for the NoSQL market. This is due to the presence of numerous companies that have their offices located in the region. A significantly large proportion of start-up enterprises located in the Europe region are in the process of availing of NoSQL solutions. European enterprises are implementing NoSQL solutions to support rapidly changing consumer demands. Updating several databases, especially for government users, requires NoSQL data solutions. In addition, the proliferation of disruptive technologies, such as robotics, augmented reality, and machine learning has augmented the need for scalable and flexible infrastructure across all sectors. This is anticipated to boost the market's growth in Europe due to ongoing supportive government initiatives toward transforming IT operations and modernizing IT infrastructure.

The NoSQL market in LAMEA comprises Latin America and the Middle East and Africa regions. The NoSQL technology is early in its emergence in the LAMEA region. The comparatively slower technological development in the region has limited the adoption of novel technologies such as NoSQL. The relatively fewer enterprises are also a limiting factor in the region. However, the market is expected to grow rapidly with web and mobile app management applications over the forecast period. The e-commerce activities will also likely rise in the region, helping the overall NoSQL adoption. The development of online apps in the Middle East and Africa region will also help the adoption of NoSQL.

Segmental Analysis

The global market is segmented by type, application, and industry vertical.

Based on type, the global market is divided into key-value stores, document databases, column-based stores, and graph databases. 

The key-value store segment is responsible for the most considerable market share and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 29.1% over the forecast period. Key value store databases organize all the data with an indexed key and corresponding value. The databases are then arranged in a schema-less manner to make it simpler. The data stored in application instances is considered 'Value,' and the reference for an identifier is commonly known as 'Key.' Technically, the key-value store is a distributed associative array. In key-value store databases, the hash table is used for accessing unique keys. In addition, the simplicity of implementing a database is a significant driver of key-value store databases. The high scalability and the ability to support multiple data models on a single database with faster access would continue driving its application.

Graph-based NoSQL databases represent relations among different data elements in graph format. A graph-based NoSQL model is highly scalable with the ability to connect with many entities. Transforming data from one model to another is easier with a graph-based NoSQL database. The ability to support many connections drives the adoption of graph-based NoSQL structures. To a comfortable extent, the ability to serve ACID properties (Atomicity, Confidentiality, Integrity, and Durability) of databases is expected to drive the adoption of graph-based NoSQL databases.

Based on application, the global market is segmented into data storage, mobile apps, data analytics, web apps, and others. 

The web apps segment owns the highest market share and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29.6% during the forecast period. Web applications are data intensive regarding session information, user login details, etc. NoSQL is emerging as one of the most suitable technological options for storing web app session information. The properties of key-value stores help to manage unstructured session data comfortably compared to RDBMS. Lower latency of key-value stores while allowing access to session data ensures a high user experience. Furthermore, most web pages nowadays largely feature real-time advertisements. NoSQL databases facilitate the ad platforms while tracking user attributes. In addition, web applications need profiles and relevant login credentials to ensure the authenticity and confidentiality of each user. To store profiles of all users, NoSQL key-value stores are used in practice. A NoSQL database stores user IDs along with their information and preferences.

Kobo and Playtika are the companies that use NoSQL for their mobile apps, facilitating the enhanced experience of their millions of users. Numerous applications are available on various app stores, such as Google Playstore, Microsoft's Office store, and Apple's App Store. All popular applications come with new features. In addition, app developers must complete the process update without service disruption to ensure user adoption and loyalty. NoSQL is a comfortable option for this purpose, which stores user information and application content in schema-less format.

Based on industry verticals, the global market is segmented into retail, gaming, IT, and others. 

The IT segment is the highest contributor to the market and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 29.7% during the forecast period. The applications of NoSQL in the IT industry are used for numerous purposes, such as application development and management. NoSQL database technology is emerging as the most appropriate technology for managing social network data. Social networks have an enormous amount of data with several connections and preferences of many users. In addition, the best technology for implementing social networks is now recognized as graph-based NoSQL data stores. NoSQL databases facilitate high scalability and consistency in operations in social networks without the need for infrastructure enhancements to a large extent.

The retail industry is a significant user of NoSQL data stores. Shopping for items at physical outlets generates enormous amounts of data. This data is helpful for business analytics to identify sales trends and inventory patterns. Based on these insights, retail stores formulate strategies for various purposes, such as marketing, inventory, and logistics. NoSQL database is also beneficial for managing e-commerce activities. On e-commerce portals, a large amount of customer data is loaded. This data is primarily schema-less and varies per user category. The e-commerce application needs a NoSQL database for various activities such as order tracking and management and delivery and logistics management.

Recent Developments

• July 2022- ScyllaDB introduced ScyllaDB V, the most recent iteration of their monstrously fast and scalable NoSQL database designed for data-intensive applications that require high speed and low latency.

• December 2022- ScyllaDB announced that it is achieving astounding NoSQL performance results on the new AWS I4i instances powered by the 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with an all-core turbo frequency of 3.5 GHz.