IBM Cloudant

Document data stores are represented in JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, where every document is itself a complex data structure. Documents can contain nested structures of various data types, including other objects. Users of a document database can query these complex structures, retrieving or updating portions of the document, or the entire document, without the need to lock down the database to do so. Documents are stored and retrieved through a primary key that is unique to every document, similar to the key in a key-value store.

Part of JSON’s appeal with developers stems from its schema, which can rapidly evolve without intervention by database administrators. JSON offers a simple and elegant model for persisting Java or JavaScript objects thanks to the tight affinity that JSON has with JavaScript. This allows developers to construct a data layer solution without the need for heavy-weight persistence solutions such as OpenJPA or Hibernate. Finally, storing a single JSON document to represent a real-world object is much more intuitive than storing N numbers of rows in a relational database as a normalized object.

While Cloudant is API-compatible with CouchDB, the primary difference in functionality between Cloudant and Apache CouchDB is that Cloudant has layered additional open-source technologies for full-text search and geospatial indexing capabilities. IBM has also developed its own monitoring and operations systems to ensure high availability and performance. Furthermore, Cloudant engineers handle all the ongoing database monitoring and infrastructure maintenance, so you can spend more time building your app and less time worrying about your database.  

Apache CouchDB is an active open source project, protecting customers against vendor lock-in as a reliable alternative to document-oriented database vendors. With Cloudant and CouchDB, the migration path in either direction is made easy. The two systems share a common replication protocol, which lets developers synchronize copies of their Cloudant data to a remote CouchDB instance — or vice versa — at the push of a button. 

Check out these docs for differences between Cloudant and CouchDB API endpoints.

Offline-first architecture means building your app without requiring a connection to the internet. Instead of assuming the lack of connectivity is an error condition, the app is designed to provide users the opportunity to interact with your app without connection. Using Cloudant Mobile Sync, mobile apps can collect and read data even if network connectivity is unavailable. When the connection is re-established, the data will be synced with IBM Cloudant.  

Cloudant works seamlessly with Hoodie and PouchDB. Hoodie is an open source Node.js back end for offline-first applications. PouchDB is an open-source JavaScript database that works in web browsers and can sync with Cloudant. This interoperability enables seamless data replication and syncing across any data store that implements the CouchDB Replication Protocol, powering endless varieties of offline-first data architectures. Read more about offline-first applications.