NOSQL support

[mchaia]

Hi all,
I know that a workflow engine relies on a transactional relational database to maintain state, putting focus on Consistency (in terms of "CAP theorem").
Taking into account performance and horizontal scalability, is it possible to think about a NOSQL database for workflow engine repository? (let's say MongoDB, Cassandra, etc.)
I'm concerned about MySQL performance & scalability in a high-demand website.
Am I conceptually wrong thinking about that?
I'd like to hear different opinions and, on the other hand, to have a strong argument to justify massive, concurrent access to a RDBMS (MySQL) in our website.
(I didn't see NOSQL support in Activiti roadmap).
Thanks in advance,
Martin

[jbarrez]

Hi Martin, internally we are experimenting with nosql, but don't expect anything soon in the open source version.

But I think your assumption is wrong: a 'regular' database can cope with huge loads. You would need a massive amount of users (think Facebook, Twitter, etc.), to really justify a nosql backend.

[mchaia]

Thanks for your answer Joram.
We are certainly NOT Facebook or Twitter… but we are on our way to be so…
Anyway, your answer makes me feel more confident about this subject.
We will give Activiti a serious try in our Production environment.
Thanks again!!