Database Research: Are We at a Crossroad? Reflection on NoSQL

The demand to process large sets of data has increased in the last few years from both the scientific and business community. To serve this demand, a number of new databases have been introduced that are not based on relational models. This group of databases is popularly known as NoSQL. The underlying data and transaction models in the NoSQL are different from relational databases. Much interest has been placed by organizations in adopting this new technology and has created a buzz in database research. The fact that the underlying principles are different to relational models has placed a dilemma in the database research community. Would this new technology change the shape of database research and industry?