<p>The rise of mobile apps has created tension in the world of data management. There's a disconnect between the fast-and-loose scalability of non-relational databases used to handle data for mobile applications and the prim-and-proper relational databases many businesses already use to manage their affairs.</p><p>To face such tensions, IBM is stepping into the fray with a new collaboration with 10gen, commercial vendors of the open source NoSQL MongoDB database system. The purpose? To bridge the gap between the new tech of online business with the legacy databases where enterprises already manage their business data.The Database Odd Couple</p><p>Getting such systems to talk to each other is not impossible, but it can be painful: Data transforms and cross-database queries can be tenuous without solid application programming interfaces (APIs) and data connections in place, and such lash-ups can fail when tasked with production workloads. It's a little like Homer Simpson showing up for dinner at Downton Abbey: communication can happen, but it may not be pretty (especially if there's no doughnuts).</p><p>The effort announced by the two companies is part of Big Blue's MobileFirst program, IBM's effort to get a foothold in the mobile commerce and enterprise sectors. It's been a bumpy journey, because IBM is firmly ensconced in the world of relational databases with its DB2 product line and the WebSphere eXtreme Scale data grid platform. While well-suited for enterprise deployments, such data systems are not always appropriate for mobile databases, which need to scale under variable workloads and be able to handle the firehose of data that could come at any given moment from mobile or Web apps.</p><p><a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/06/05/mobile-ibm-partners-with-nosql-vendor-10gen">Keep reading...</a></p>