Can you use a key-value store as the primary database for your application?

Question

I am developing an application that will be deployed to Amazon EC2. I've had a good look at membase, which is a key-value store that can scale out very easily. However, I'm not sure that you can use that as your primary (or at least, only) datastore. Ie, you will need something else that will be able to hold search-able/query-able data.

Am I missing something? In order for you to query your data you need to have indexes, but as far as I can tell key-value stores don't have index capabilities. Am I expected to implement the indexes manually or am I trying to use the wrong tool for the job?

Answer 1

You can search and query against MongoDB. Maybe that can sort you out. (Don't let the FourSquare situation put you off - they fixed it.)

Answer 2

Am I expected to implement the indexes manually or am I trying to use the wrong tool for the job?

Probably.

A pure key-value store will do just that: Store insane amounts of keyed data with high availability and fast access times.

If you need more features (such as queries) out of the box, you need to move "up the ladder" to document-based databases (which do manage indexes, and some such as MongoDB even allow ad-hoc queries).