<p>8 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Your iPad And The CloudStartup Cloudant took the Apache's Software Foundation's CouchDB NoSQL system and developed it into an online database service, BigCouch. On July 22, Cloudant took the technology that allows it to horizontally cluster and scale BigCouch and gave it back to the foundation.</p><p>Cloudant will cease to develop BigCouch on its own, concentrating instead on participating in the CouchDB open source code project and keeping BigCouch characteristics integrated with it. Cloudant then will use CouchDB code for its online service. More Cloud InsightsWebcasts More >>White Papers More >>Reports More >></p><p>In general, CouchDB is installed and used on premises, like other software database products. Cloudant's donation and participation in the project may change that, although some observers are skeptical that many CouchDB users are looking for CouchDB as an online service.</p><p>Cloudant's primary business is offering CouchDB as a service, while the open source effort so far has produced code that's used on premises. They are "two different businesses," noted Curt Monash, of Monash Research and blogger on the database and NoSQL site, DBMS2.com. "If you want to use BigCouch or any other CouchDB variant on your own...you're pretty much on your own," he wrote in an email message.</p><p><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/software/couchdb-gets-cloudants-super-size-me-sca/240158819">Keep reading...</a></p>