Comment by rbranson

I'm no fan of MongoDB, but this same advice goes for any NoSQL data store. I am an Apache Cassandra contributor and community MVP, but my advice stays the same: it's best just to start with a SQL database and go from there. Read some books and learn it well: the "SQL Cookbook" from O'Reilly is great, and so is "The Art of SQL." Premature optimization continues to be the root of all evil.