Clients across a variety of industries, including gaming, financial services, mobile device manufacturers, online learning, retail and healthcare are already using IBM Cloudant technology. For instance, video game developer Hothead Games relies on IBM Cloudant to scale application data for its popular series of Big Win Sports mobile games on iPhone®, iPad® and Android™ phones and tablets. With IBM Cloudant running on IBM SoftLayer, Hothead Games can efficiently handle large influxes of users, even when traffic spikes a hundred-fold.

 1. NoSQL databases market share is growing, with JSON document stores representing over 50% of that growth.

Everyone knows that the NoSQL database market is hot, but NoSQL document data stores– defined using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) –are leading the charge.  JSON’s lightweight data interchange format has become the de facto data interchange format on the web due to its language independence and self-describing data structures.  You can change your data representation and structure from document to document. This schema flexibility allows you to describe all the aspects of data (in any formatting that you encounter); moreover, JSON allows you to avoid cluttering your data tables with pesky NULL values you find in relational databases.

2. Let your developers develop (and not worry about DBA) by using Cloudant’s managed database-as-a-service (DBaaS).

Time is money and the speed of deployment to a database is critical: databases need to meet your needs, scale up and down rapidly as required, and be there when you need it (all the time). IBM Cloudant’s defining feature is the delivery of these necessary services via a cloud-distributed, database-as-a-service (DBaaS) solution. Don’t force your developers to handle everything from provisioning the hardware to database administration at the top of the stack – let IBM Cloudant’s DBaaS handle it.

IBM Cloudant makes it easy for developers: we provide complete synchronization and geo-load balancing features that communicate to the database without needing additional servers or components between your device & storage endpoints.

3. Mobile applications benefit from Cloudant scalability and user activity analytics.

When you don’t know if your application will be a hit or a flop, IBM Cloudant offers robust scalability that takes you from development studio into a mobile environment.  We’ll handle challenges of availability, synchronization, and geography. Millions of new users can interact with an online game’s world (or your enterprise application), without requiring you to dedicate DBAs towards the day-to-day maintenance of your service. IBM Cloudant also provides monitoring of user activity and monetization analytics: tools which allow you to track how customers are spending money purchasing through in-application markets and ecosystems.  You can also track whether people keep using it and where in the world it is most popular. 

4. Cloudant supports enterprise systems requiring secure data storage and high availability.

Everyone hears stories about how “the cloud” is vulnerable to attack.  IBM Cloudant offers security for storing confidential and sensitive data (like your mother’s maiden name and your birthday).We offer top-tier physical security, backed by IBM.along with at-rest and in-flight encryption, and account, database, document, and field-level access control.  Some of our customers have tried and tested CouchDB and abandoned it as a failure. MongoDB opens you up to a risk of data loss and corruption – which is unacceptable for some of our client’s needs. Cloudant won over these customers by providing a stable and always-available environment. Cloudant delivers a full range of functionality via the full-managed, database-as-a-service cloud model.

5. Buy a database service, based on your actual usage and Service Level Agreement (SLA) needs.

From  ‘Freemium’ services to ‘Gold’ Support, Cloudant scales to match your growth in operational transactions, as well as your growth in data storage.

Learn more in the new IBM Redbooks Solution Guide - IBM Cloudant: The Do-More NoSQL Data Layer - http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips1187.html?Open
 

Edited June 9, 2014 for formatting only.