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MarkLogic - NoSQL with an edge
October 06, 2015

MarkLogic - NoSQL with an edge

Beverly Jamison | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

MarkLogic 7, MarkLogic8

Modules Used

  • Essential Enterprise, Semantics

Overall Satisfaction with MarkLogic

MarkLogic is used the most by the academic publishing unit. There it is used for an end to end data flow for the metadata and full text of our academic publishing products (PsycINFO database, Peer reviewed journals, Books, Psychological Tests and Measures). In addition, we use some of the newer capabilities, such as semantics and javascript support, for our "labs" where we develop cutting edge technology for our content.
  • Indexing is a major strength of MarkLogic. The out-of-the-box configuration is set up to handle a combination of text and fielded data. The indexing is also highly configurable. Those configuration options are at the heart of a lot of our high-volume, high-performance applications.
  • The industrial strength transactions and security are also a strength, particularly when we are dealing with user-created intellectual property.
  • The engineering support is a strength. They are big enough to have a really strong support and engineering staff, but small enough so that a medium-sized customer has access to it. They are very responsive to questions and problem reports.
  • The ability to move easily among XML and JSON is a strength.
  • There is a steep learning curve to learn to use this tool, particularly the xquery and extensive associated API. The more recent releases and features have been responsive to this concern, but some of the core features still take some learning.
  • The javascript implementation is new and there are still some spots where it needs to be made fully compliant with standards and conventions, such as file extensions
  • Faster time to market for our content. This was important to us as we are a publisher.
  • Increased effectiveness at innovation. We have been able to make advances in analysis and visualizations that have served our internal clients for business intelligence and our external users for more modern info pages.
We had Fast in place when Microsoft had bought it up and was going to change / deprecate it. One of the biggest advantages of MarkLogic for search actually had to do with the rest of the content pipeline - it allowed us to have it all in one technology. On the NoSQL side, we looked at MongoDB a couple years back. At that time, MarkLogic came in stronger on indexing, transaction reliability, and DR options. For us, that was worth using a commercial product.
We use it as the core for a lot of our commercial content, so we would renew because we want to continue support and upgrades on the product. We also have plans for further use of the newer features.
We first purchased MarkLogic licenses in 2008, when we were a publisher with lots of XML and they were an XML database. That was a pretty clear fit. Since then, they have moved into the mainstream of NoSQL and so have we. I think they would be a good fit for anyone that has NoSQL needs that also require industrial strength transaction safety, ability to scale, and that sort of feature. They are commercial, not open source, so if someone is committed to the whole stack being open source, then this is not a good fit.