NoSQL in Higher Education. A Case Study

Big Data and NoSQL technologies are simultaneously marketing hypes and tools that could significantly change the database and application development landscape. This paper argues that, despite the negation and revolt suggested by their name, NoSQL data stores are rather a complement of traditional transactional database systems. The paper is focused on the module implemented at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration dedicated to web and application servers log analysis. Using MongoDB -- a popular NoSQL product, JavaScript, Pyhon environment and Tornado web server, the module extracts data from large log files and provides useful information about users who have not succeeded to connect to applications such as Blackboard system, faculty portal and web site, about the usage of workstations and labs and other information for which NoSQL technologies can complement relational databases. For a better understanding, beside the module architecture and the solution itself, the authors also try to draw the big picture for the NoSQL technologies and the current context in the data storage environment.