A crucial question system designers must ponder is how they want to store their data. There are a variety of mechanisms that each arose out of a need and often focus on different aspects of data storage and retrieval. No database engine should ever be favored exclusively as all of the major database engines have commanded their market share for their unique strengths.

A common misconception is that a single database engine must be selected and used for the extent of the project. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of the major online websites use a variety of different data storage solutions, each tailored for certain types of tasks.

There are a few important aspects that must be considered when reviewing a database engine:

• Data Write Speed: How quickly can new data be added to your tables or collections? Does this degrade with massive amounts of data
• Data Accessibility: How quickly can data be retrieved from the engine? Is the data highly relational? Are computations and aggregations needed for complex querying and data analytics?
• Performance: How well does the engine vertically scale with added RAM? Does the engine support multi server clustering for horizontal scaling?
• Price: Does the project warrant a premium database solutions or can it be adequately addressed with open source solutions?