As this title demonstrates, NoSQL is no longer a useful term. (It was useful for a period of time when SQL-based RDBMs systems were quite predominant, so it could be used as a gross differentiator).<p>Now the best way to think about it is that there are database platforms with varying features, one of which is support for SQL. When you evaluate which platform to use, you should have a list of business-derived criteria, such as SQL support, support for various relational integrity constructs (i.e. foreign keys), latency for typical queries (e.g. Hive), fault tolerance, ACID compliance, partitioning schemes, read or write optimization, etc. and act accordingly.<p>"NoSQL" used to be shorthand for a vague subset of database features that usually involved relaxing data protection in favor of multi-server scalability, but now it just muddies the waters, especially as many NoSQL platforms now support SQL or a subset thereof.