I understand this is or will be a part of WebScaleSQL [1]. But WebScaleSQL does not provide binaries. You have to build it yourself. An alternative is the JSON

I understand this is or will be a part of WebScaleSQL [1]. But WebScaleSQL does not provide binaries. You have to build it yourself. An alternative is the JSON Labs Release of MySQL 5.7.7 [2]. The differences are explained in the slides, at the end. Another great alternative is using PostgreSQL that supports JSON columns stored in a binary format since version 9.4 [3]. That said, I really like the approach of Facebook with DocStore, because of its use of "document paths", instead of functions. [1] http://webscalesql.org/ http://webscalesql.org/ [2] http://mysqlserverteam.com/json-labs-release-overview/ http://mysqlserverteam.com/json-labs-release-overview/ [3] http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/datatype-json.html http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/datatype-json.html