DynamoDB is one of the renowned services of Amazon Web Services(AWS). Some big names such as Snapchat, Netflix, and The Pokemon Company are leveraging DynamoDB for their database-relevant needs. 

It’s quite easy to set up and configure DynamoDB and you can integrate it with multiple web-based apps without any hassle. Whether it’s Gaming, Ad Tech, Retail, Banking & Finance, Media & Entertainment, or Software & Internet, DynamoDB supports technology solutions in each niche. 

Many prominent NoSQL database alternatives are available in the market like MongoDB, HBase, Cassandra, Redis, Amazon DynamoDB, and Riak. In this post, we are going to focus on Amazon DynamoDB – A big name in the NoSQL world.

What is AWS DynamoDB?

DynamoDB comes under the category of NoSQL or non-relational databases. Unlike other databases such as Oracle and MySQL, which rely on the well-defined table pattern and relationship between tables, NoSQL databases are document-based. Every document within a table needs a primary key and also consists of extra indexes if needed. 

One primary benefit of DynamoDB on other NoSQL databases is that it is managed and hosted by Amazon Web Services(AWS). Users do not need to add additional storage capacity or any hardware as the database’s storage needs expand. DynamoDB is fault-tolerant, highly available, and accessible from any corner of the world.   

For easy understanding, see this video introduction. 

DynamoDB Suits you the Best if,

• Organization of data is in the hierarchy or a combined structure in one/two tables.
• If You need to provide services in scalable, duplicated, or worldwide configuration.
• If data security is something that you can’t afford to compromise.
• If you want to invest in the NoSQL learning curve for your developers.
• If regular backups are unfeasible or expensive due to table update rate and overall data size.
• If you need to store your app data in the size range of high-terabyte.
• If your app/service regularly needs response time during each millisecond, despite loading and without tuning attempt.
• If your database workload differs according to time of day or it is led by the high-growth rate/high traffic events.

You should use AWS DynamoDB if,

• You are having scalability issues with other conventional database systems.
• When you are involved in application development services.
• When you are engaged with OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) workload.
• When you are providing business-critical applications that need to be available easily at all times without physical assistance.
• When you are not having enough staff for database management.
• If you need to reduce the amount of work of the operations teams.
• When you need a high level of data durability despite a backup-and-restore strategy.
• When you don’t have sufficient data to predict ups and downs in database performance.

Reasons to Opt for AWS DynamoDB

Amazon DynamoDB enables various benefits compared to other DBMS. The integration of DynamoDB with other AWS services (AWS Data Pipeline, Amazon EMR, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon S3, for data import/export, archive, data warehouse, analytics, and backup.) is exceptionally worthwhile. 

Effortless Set-up

Setting up a DynamoDB is very easy as it is a serverless database. You just need to open the AWS Management Console and use the wizard. On the other hand, if you set up an on-premises MongoDB instance, you have to follow a lengthy list of instructions and might face authentication errors. 

Durability and Availability

DynamoDB comprises an in-built fault-tolerance system that automatically and synchronically duplicates the data over three data centers in the areas for high availability. It will also aid in securing data against particular machines, failures, and facilities. 

For greater data availability, “Amazon DynamoDB Streams” grabs all the data that occurs on the table and sets up regional replicas from one geographic area to another. 

Data Models

You need to pay only for what you have utilized withDynamoDB. There is nothing like minimum fees. DynamoDB comprises three pricing sections:

• Provisioned throughput capacity (In an hour)

• Indexed data storage (Per GB, Monthly)

• Data transfer in or out (Per GB, Monthly)

If you are a new customer, you can use DynamoDB at no cost as part of the AWS Free Usage Tier. 

Interfaces

With DynamoDB, you will get a low-level REST API along with high-level SDKs for Java, PHP, and ET. They will wrap the Rest API and offer several ORM (Object Relational Mapping) functions. You will get a management and data interface for DynamoDB through these APIs. 

At present, these APIs offer table management operations like creating, listing, deleting, and obtaining metadata and collaboration with attributes such as obtaining, writing, and removing attributes, index query, and full scan.

Performance

SSDs and limiting attribute indexing offer high efficiency and low delay. It will significantly mitigate the expenses of reading and writing operations. When the datasets increase, predictable performance is needed to sustain the lower delays for the workloads. The predictable performance can be obtained by informing the provided output capacity needed for a given table. 

To get the requested output rate, the service manages the supply of resources. You do not have to worry about any instances, memory, hardware, or other components that can affect an app’s output rate. 

Scalability and Flexibility

DynamoDB is highly flexible and scalable. It automatically assigns more storage space as you store more data with the use of write API operations. So you do not have any limitations to the data stored in a DynamoDB table. Data will get divided as required while SSDs offer predictable low-delay response times to any extent. 

The service is flexible as well. As per your changing preferences, you can dial-up/dial-down the read and write capacity of a table.  

Summing Up

There is no lack of usage for DynamoDB. To get started, you only need to discover the exact match as per your needs and then refer to the user-friendly features mentioned above.

DynamoDB performs greatly with large-scale organizations, along with easy management of complicated infrastructures. Amazon Web Services has made work easier and highly productive for the developers.

Source: https://bit.ly/3xiP8B3