It's an application design choice. It's perfectly reasonable to consider those two options when designing a system. The constraints of the system determine whic

It's an application design choice. It's perfectly reasonable to consider those two options when designing a system. The constraints of the system determine which is better for the application. I'd pick a centralized network-reachable database with a strong relational schema for write-heavy applications, and a lighter in-process system for something that is mostly reads and where latency matters. It's not a false dichotomy — but more like a continuum that certainly includes both extremes on it.