When to Use HBase
From Cloudera’s HBase Do’s and Don’ts:
If your application has a variable schema where each row is slightly different, then you should look at HBase. As an example, doing a modeling exercise using a standard relational schema; When you can’t add columns fast enough and most of them are NULL in each row, you should consider HBase. If you find that your data is stored in collections, for example some meta data, message data or binary data that is all keyed on the same value, then you should consider HBase. If you need key based access to data when storing or retrieving, then you should consider HBase.
Original title and link: When to Use HBase (NoSQL databases © myNoSQL)
