By the late 2000s, data volume had surged and it was apparent that a new alternative model was required in order to manage the data. This new model, called BASE, became a foundational topic that replaced ACID as the preferred model of database management systems.

BASE stands for Basically Available Soft-state Eventually consistency. This implies that the database is basically available for use most of the time; that is, there can be periods during which the services are unavailable (and hence additional redundancy measures should be implemented). Soft-state means that the state of the system cannot be guaranteed - different instances of the same data might have different content as it may not have yet captured recent updates in another part of the cluster. Finally, eventually consistent implies that although the database might not be in the same state at all times, it will eventually get to the same state; that is, become consistent.