Relational vs. Non-Relational Databases for Modern Engineering: Designing Resilient Data Layers with NewSQL, Vector Stores, and Polyglot Persistence confronts a problem every engineering team now faces: data architectures are growing more complex while expectations for reliability, scale, and performance keep rising. Teams struggle to decide when relational databases still dominate, when NoSQL becomes essential, and how emerging systems like NewSQL and vector databases fit into production systems without creating fragility or cost blowouts.
This book provides a clear, engineering-first framework for making those decisions with confidence. Rather than arguing for one database model over another, it shows how modern systems actually work: multiple data stores, each chosen for a specific workload, combined into a resilient and evolvable data layer. You'll see how relational systems, document stores, wide-column databases, graph engines, NewSQL platforms, and vector stores complement each other when designed deliberately. The result is a practical guide to polyglot persistence grounded in real engineering constraints, not theory.
By the end of this book, you'll be able to:
Choose between relational, NoSQL, NewSQL, and vector databases based on workload characteristics, not hype
Design data layers that balance consistency, scalability, latency, and cost
Understand where ACID guarantees matter, where eventual consistency wins, and how hybrids bridge the gap
Integrate vector databases alongside transactional systems for AI-driven search and retrieval
Avoid common failure patterns in distributed data architectures
Future-proof your database strategy as systems, teams, and data volumes grow
Written for software engineers, architects, and technical leaders, this book speaks the language of production systems. It emphasizes trade-offs, operational realities, and long-term maintainability, making it equally valuable for cloud-native platforms, enterprise systems, and AI-enabled applications.
If you're responsible for designing or evolving a data layer that must survive scale, change, and real-world pressure, this book belongs on your desk. Get your copy now and start building database architectures that hold up under modern engineering demands.
