Choose a database
Turn queries, business rules, scale, and recovery needs into requirements you can test.
Requirements → shortlist → decisionDatabase guides and tools
Choose with care.
Build to last.
Practical guidance for developers and small teams building data systems. From the first database choice to the first recovery drill.
Database directory
Google. Microsoft. Oracle. AWS. And beyond.
Compare established engines, cloud services, and specialist platforms by what they do and when to consider them.
Four parts of the job
Explore the database topics.
Compare database types
Understand database families and the workloads, models, and tradeoffs behind them.
Relational, document, search, and moreDesign your database
Model relationships, enforce rules, give indexes a purpose, and prepare for schema changes.
Schema → query plan → migrationOperate with evidence
Work through a practical checklist for backups, recovery, monitoring, access, and ownership.
Ten checks, saved in your browserPractical database guides
Work through a real example.
SQL or NoSQL is the wrong first question
Choose a database from the work it must do: queries, business rules, concurrent writes, geography, recovery, and the team's operating budget.
Read guide →Indexes: the performance feature with a write bill
Build a PostgreSQL index for a customer’s latest orders, inspect the before-and-after plans, and account for its ongoing costs.
Read guide →A backup is not real until you restore it
Turn a successful backup job into evidence that your business can recover: choose a recovery point, restore in isolation, test the application, and measure the whole process.
Read guide →