The Database Zoo: SQL, NoSQL, and the Rise of Specialized Engines

Over the past 40 years, databases have evolved from relational systems to NoSQL engines, each solving new challenges of scale, flexibility, and performance. Yet modern workloads—like time-series metrics, vector search, and geospatial queries—expose the limits of general-purpose systems. This article traces the journey from SQL to NoSQL and introduces the rise of specialized databases designed to handle today’s most demanding data problems.