WSJ: HealthCare.gov’s Heart Beats For NoSQL

"CMS needed to process non-standard data types from multiple vendors. Insurers trying to sell their products on HealthCare.gov lack a standard way of expressing their data, describing deductibles, health conditions and other plan attributes differently. If CMS had elected to use a SQL system, its programmers would have had to build a common data model, or schema, to describe the disparate data sources within the application. This would require more time, a luxury CMS did not have if it wanted to meet HealthCare.gov’s Oct. 1 launch deadline. In contrast, NoSQL systems can more easily search plan information– a process similar to how Google Inc. retrieves Web content for users. “We’ve essentially built search-based applications against the [HealthCare.gov] data,” said Mr. Bloom."