Are document-oriented databases meant to replace relational databases?

Posted by evolve on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by evolve
Published on 2010-05-19T13:52:07Z Indexed on 2010/05/20 8:30 UTC
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Recently I've been working a little with MongoDB and I have to say I really like it. However it is a completely different type of database then I am used. I've noticed that it is most definitely better for certain types of data, however for heavily normalized databases it might not be the best choice.

It appears to me however that it can completely take the place of just about any relational database you may have and in most cases perform better, which is mind boggling. This leads me to ask a few questions:

  1. Are document-oriented databases have been developed to be the next generation of databases and basically replace relational databases completely?
  2. Is it possible that projects would be better off using both a document-oriented database and a relational database side by side for various data which is better suited for one or the other?
  3. If document-oriented databases are not meant to replace relational databases, then does anyone have an example of a database structure which would absolutely be better off in a relational database (or vice-versa)?

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