One of best tip I learned from my post-graduate research in Parallel & Distributed area was to bring the computation closer to the data. However, most applications in the real world are designed as three or more tiers that separate databases from the application server, where the business logic resides. Though, stored procedures have long been used in client server architecture, dataware services, reporting, and other forms to run the business logic closer to the database, but they are generally shunned due to the maintenance issues. I find it interesting that NoSQL databases are bringing back the stored procedures in the form of map/reduce queries. NoSQL databases come in various forms such as key-value stores, document stores, column stores, and graph stores. They are primarily influenced by the Brewer’s CAP Theorem and use BASE (basically available, soft state, eventually consistent) transactions as opposed to ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) transactions. NoSQL databases are designed for horizontal scalability and are able to support large data by partitioning it. NoSQL offer rich queries based on map/reduce, which are generally written in javascript or other scripting languages. These queries provide powerful mechanism to define the business logic for filtering or aggregating results, which are then executed inside the database or closer to the data. Thus, NoSQL databases are able to provide much better performance as a side effect if the application logic is transferred to the host where the data resides. Everything old is new again and stored procedures are back in the fashion.
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