My two brass razoo's worth.<p>Like any technology, if you use relational databases incorrectly then you will have problems. Unfortunately, over the decades I have seen so many abuses when using relational databases that one has to wonder if those building these systems actually understand the basics.<p>The complaint in the article was about transactions - rollback purposes. I would agree that this facility is highly undesirable for payment systems.<p>But it is not the particular facilities that is the problem, it is the application of inappropriate use by those building the systems in question.<p>There are far too many database developers who just do not understand the basic theory behind relational databases and so, we will continue to see inappropriate applications built.