SQL is neither the fastest nor the most elegant way to talk to databases, but it is the best way we have. Here’s why Today, Structured Query Language is the standard means of manipulating and ...

SQL databases have constraints on data types and consistency. ... For example, Apache Cassandra, a wide column store, has its own SQL-like language, the Cassandra Query Language or CQL.

It's not so much a black and white, SQL vs. NoSQL situation, of course: TokBox still kept SQL databases around. That's where his team fed portions of Hadoop output for analysts to query more easily.