Relational data and NoSQL Use Case

Question

I am looking at building a system which allows people to input times that represent when they were working. The database will store organisations which has users and projects.

• Organisations
  • Projects
    • Project a
    • Project b
  • Users
    • User c
    • User d

I also store records which have a start and end time associated to a particular project.

• Record
  • Start Time
  • End Time
  • Notes
  • Project
  • User

Now my question is related to the database.
I know this is inherently relational data so a relational database would make sense however, i have heard that nosql databases are good for flexibility and scalability when records grow.

Ultimately, I would like this system to become a service organisations can use therefore the number of organisation, users and records would grow tremendously (hopefully), so is there a case for using a nosql database?

I have looked at document-based databases such as mongoDB and couchDB. Which apparently are good for profiles of users and organisation, but I do not see if there is any real benefit of using nosql when there will be queries to get all the records associated to an organisation/user or records from particular time periods/projects.

I would appreciate any advise you could give to aid my decision.

Answer 1

Generally speaking, use what makes sense. The below use cases (taken from a Pluralsight course on NoSQL) indicate that your project would make the most sense to use a Relational Database

• Line of Business: Relational
• Large consumer sites: NoSQL

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• Complex data structure: Relational
• Big Data: NoSQL

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• Transactional: Relational
• Content Management: NoSQL

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• Enterprise: Relational
• Consumer Web: NoSQL