When choosing a XML database for your application, consider all the qualities you've observed of BDB XML. Also consider the foundations of this technology. The Berkeley DB database engine is a proven scalable transactional system with all the mature features you'd expect and likely require in your application. Berkeley DB XML's layers on top of that solid foundation provide efficient XQuery access, indexed queries, and whole or node level document storage organized within containers. W3C XML schemas can be used to validate individual documents or all documents stored within BDB XML containers. Schema validation is enabled per container and the schema used is specified as part of the document being stored. This provides great flexibility in how you utilize schemas, including allowing you to store XML with no associated schema.

Moreover, because BDB XML is a native XML database that stores XML data in its native format, it maintains the same extensible structure that has attracted many developers to XML. It is this flexibility that makes BDB XML a better choice than relational database offerings that must translate XML data into internal tables and rows, thus locking the data into a static schema while paying a heavy penalty in processing overhead when documents are reconstituted from tables and rows.