Last week, I was surprised by an email from Andy Pavlo (Associate Professor with Indefinite Tenure in Databaseology in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University) asking me for an SVG logo and what is the official name of NunDB because he had included it in the Database of Databases. I responded to the email 9 minutes later and in a few more minutes. It was a mix of joy and pride.

But wait, what is the Database of Databases?

The Database of Databases is a website that catalogs database systems dbdb.io. They have a few classifications for the databases as “Checkpoints,” “Data Model,” “Indexes,” “Query Compilation,” “Query Execution,” “Query Interface,” “Storage Architecture,” and “System Architecture.” I see it as an important source to find new innovative databases.

Analyzing the categorization of NunDB, I noticed that they spend a good amount of time understanding the databases they catalog and the way they work.

For example, they classified NunDB as “Inspired By: Faster” and indeed picked some ideas from Faster to implement the new storage engine, but I never shared that information except in a few markdown files in the repository.

What is NunDB?

NunDB is an open-source (MIT) real-time database made to be fast, light, and easy to use. NunDb is meant to be connected directly from your browser’s users to receive any state update you want to push to them in real-time.

Some of my personal use cases of NunDB are:

• Medical Imaging Remote control with OHIF Viewer See here

• Real-time update of Users calendar in mobile and web applications in my SaaS application (in pt-BR) See here

• A middleware database is needed for a chatbot to confirm users’ appointments and bill payments.

• Main database for a real-time feature flag system to enable/disable features just in time for users. (This is not publicly available yet)
• Many others.

Conclusion

It was a great achievement to have NunDB included in the Database of Databases. The next step is to move beyond the classification of “Hobby.” This will require a lot of work to professionalize it and get it to the next level. I am looking forward to this challenge.