Introduction to NoSQL Column-Oriented Database
NoSQL Column-Oriented Database is also known/called Columnar Database, Column Store Database, and C-Store.
OLTP and OLAP in Column-Oriented Systems
Column-oriented systems have been developed as hybrid systems Capable of both OLTP and OLAP operations, with some constraints. Column-oriented systems are suitable for both OLAP and OLTP roles. Keep in mind that both OLTP and OLAP are Online Processing Systems. OLTP stands for Online Transactional Processing System, while OLAP is Online Analytical Processing System.
Advantages for OLAP Workloads
Indeed, Columnar Databases are preferable and well-suited for OLAP workloads, e.g., Data Warehouses, and are great for Analytics and Reporting purposes with the ability to hold large amounts of data without adding a lot of overhead. It is Less Suited for OLTP Workloads. In a Columnar Database, the Data is stored as each row of a column is next to other rows from that same column.
Comparison with Row-Oriented Databases
Row-oriented databases are well-suited for OLTP-like workloads, which are more heavily loaded with interactive transactions. For example, retrieving all data from a single row is more efficient when that data is located in a single location (Minimizing Disk Seeks), as in row-oriented architectures. Row-Oriented Databases are fast at retrieving a row or a set of rows, but when performing an aggregation, it brings extra data (columns) into memory, which is slower than only selecting the columns that you are performing the aggregation on.
