title: How is Cosmos DB data supposed to be structured
body: <p>I am currently working with a team of developers that is implementing CosmosDB as a backend store, and I have some questions about how it is really supposed to be used.</p>
  
  <p>I get that the documents are supposed to be flat structured, but what exactly does that mean.? </p>
  
  <p>When the data is really relational, and very dependant on one another, is this design correct, or would a SQL database be more suited?</p>
  
  <p><strong>RetailProduct</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>{
      "RetailProductId": "123",
      "FriendlyName": "TestRetailProduct",
      "WholeSaleProductId": "100"
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>WholeSaleProduct</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>{
      "WholeSaleProductId": "100",
      "ProviderID": "112233445566",
      "PhysicalItemsIds": ["1000", "2000", "3000"]
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Provider</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>{
      "ProviderId": "112233445566",
      "Description": "ProviderA"
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>There are many more documents linked from either RetailProduct or the WholeSaleProduct, but this is just to give an overview.</p>
  
  <p>Is storing data like this, considered to be good practice for a database like CosmosDB</p>