A Brief History of Databases: From Relational, to NoSQL, to Distributed SQL

The history of databases began in the 1960s, with significant advancements made by Edgar F. Codd's introduction of the relational model in 1970. This model allowed for efficient storage and retrieval of data through cross-linked tables. Oracle launched the first commercial relational database in 1979, leading to widespread adoption of relational databases throughout the 1980s and '90s. However, with the rise of the internet and massive amounts of data generated by networked devices, traditional SQL databases struggled to scale efficiently. This led to the emergence of NoSQL databases in the late 2000s, designed for easy scaling and node failure tolerance but often lacking features like joins and transactions. Distributed SQL emerged as a solution that combines the transactional guarantees of relational databases with the scalability of NoSQL systems. Google Cloud Spanner is an example of a distributed SQL database, which meets five key conditions: scale, consistency, resiliency, SQL compatibility, and geo-replication. As more organizations adopt cloud-based infrastructures, the popularity of distributed SQL databases is expected to continue growing.