Jamaurice Holt argues that companies often pick databases because of hype instead of because the database actually fits their workload. He says PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, microservices, and “serverless” databases all have good uses, but none of them are automatically the best choice. His main point is that many expensive migrations happen for the wrong reasons, like trends, buzzwords, or fear of missing out.

Jamaurice Holt gives several stories where companies switched databases or architectures and made things worse. In his examples, moving from MySQL to PostgreSQL caused slower performance and higher costs for a high-update app, moving from PostgreSQL to MongoDB caused data integrity problems, and splitting systems into microservices with separate databases created slow queries and consistency issues. He also says Aurora Serverless and Cassandra can become much more expensive and harder to manage than expected.

Do not follow database trends blindly—choose the tool that matches your real needs

His advice is to start with a simple, proven SQL database like PostgreSQL or MySQL unless there is a clear reason not to. Jamaurice Holt says teams should optimize their current system before migrating, test any migration with real production data, calculate the true cost, and always have a rollback plan.

Complete article on Medium:
https://medium.com/@jholt1055/why-i-tell-clients-not-to-use-postgresql-and-when-mysql-mongodb-and-modern-databases-are-56d241850225

Connect with the author: https://jamaurice-holt.com