# The Architecture with TiDB: Data Agility without Growing Pain

![`smart`](./student-guide/diagram/ArchAfterTiDB_en_001_20220721.png)

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By using TiDB, the data layer architecture is straight forward and the exposed complexity is eliminated.

Like NoSQL, TiDB is distributed and is capable of horizontaly scale. Unlike NoSQL, TiDB supports SQL and is compatible with MySQL.

Within TiDB, the replication,  sharding, row and columnar transformation happens automatically. It acts in the positions where you fit in MySQL and the NoSQL database.

TiDB is versertile, you acquires data agility when you use TiDB, so you can now FOCUS on your application, do worries about the future growing pain.

I have to mention that even TiDB is versatile, it cannot completely eliminate the hotspot bottleneck caused by your application. So, the cache components like Redis are still required for the application hotspot cases. We will talk about hotspot in detail in the course named TiDB Performance Tuning and TiDB Specific Features courses.