The Benefits Of Migrating Your SQL Database To AWS DynamoDB

Welcome to the 4th edition of my newsletter "Excelling With DynamoDB".

Let's start this edition with a short but true story.

A few years ago I was charged with migrating a small SQL database to Firebase - a NoSQL database.

I had to migrate relational data - data which the application naturally performed some joins with (but not many!).

I had to denormalize the data and transform the SQL database into a schemaless JSON-structured data store.

I remember thinking at times "This is impossible, the data is not compatible!".

While it came with its challenges and lessons learned, the migration proved its value.

NoSQL databases provide the benefits of schemaless designs. I didn't have to worry about the database schema only what data to denormalize.

This does not mean you don't need to design data models for your database, far from it. However, you benefit from flexible schemas and being able to work with non-scalar data types.

The database wasn't using as many joins as needed to efficiently benefit from a relational database. The biggest challenge was denormalizing the data and modeling the data as per the access patterns of the application.

Ultimately, the migration proved successful.

However, there was one setback - scalability.

And this is where DynamoDB excels.

DynamoDB allows for a schemaless design, cost-efficiency, and low latency at infinite scale.

But can it replace SQL databases every time your SQL database is getting slow, and hard to scale?

The answer is usually no.

DynamoDB is a purpose-built database. This means - more so than for other noSQL databases - it is designed for specific use cases.

DynamoDB was designed for workloads with high scalability needs, less complex queries, and no enforcement of data schemas.

If your application requires complex queries and data aggregation or transactions that use a lot of joins, then DynamoDB is probably not going to help you much.

However, in an era of affordable storage and rising trends favoring ephemeral computing and simple transactions — traits common to most applications — DynamoDB stands out for its numerous advantages.

Without further ado, let's take a look at 7 major benefits of migrating your SQL database to AWS's NoSQL DynamoDB key-value data store.

1. Scalability

SQL databases are often very hard to scale. From what I've seen, scaling an SQL database requires tremendous expertise in relational databases, a feat even most senior database engineers cannot do easily.

Experts know the complexities of scaling relational databases. You need to shard your data into partitions to allow them to scale. Optimizing indexes and caching are also complex techniques for scaling a database. Ultimately, it is nor easy or quick work.

On the other hand, many NoSQL databases are designed to scale highly with minimum effort.

DynamoDB was designed with high scalability in mind from its inception. DynamoDB automatically partitions your data for you, in a very efficient manner. All you need to achieve enormous scale with DynamoDB is knowing how to select your primary keys properly.

Then, with techniques like the single table design, you can achieve virtually infinite scale - and performance.

This brings us to our second benefit of DynamoDB.

2. High Performance

AWS DynamoDB is advertised as capable of "single-digit latency at any scale". While this is an ambitious statement, AWS does live up to it on massive high traffic events like Amazon Prime Day.

Amazon uses DynamoDB for its shopping cart microservice, which supports hundreds of millions of transactions per second - something that occurs quite often on large-scale traffic events like Prime Day or Black Friday.

The incredibly high throughput coupled with extremely low latency is made possible with DynamoDB's high-performing and highly distributed system.

High throughput is again very difficult to achieve with a relational database. In DynamoDB it is a simple feature that you can enable to set your desired throughput.

That is the power of a fully managed database.

3. Flexible Schema

Database schemas are often complex to work with and design when you don't have a lot of experience. Additionally, they limit the data that goes into your tables. This limitation does not exist in NoSQL databases like DynamoDB.

With DynamoDB, you can create schema-less data and modify your table items without changing the table schema.

This is advantageous when dealing with unstructured or semi-structured data, as you can easily add new fields or change the structure of existing data without requiring a schema migration.

4. Cost-Effectiveness

DynamoDB offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where you only pay for the resources you use.

In many other NoSQL databases, if you scale high and use more throughput, you'll typically be charged for the spike in usage and keep that cost when usage goes down.

DynamoDB is a true "scale to zero" database solution. With on-demand capacity mode enabled, when usage dips - perhaps overnight or on weekends - you will not be charged for that time period.

This pricing model ensures you the most efficient costs at all times.

Ultimately, DynamoDB shines when you have fluctuating or unpredictable workloads.

5. Built-in Replication and High Availability

DynamoDB provides built-in replication that ensures consistently high availability and durability of your data.

By default, your table data is replicated across multiple AWS Availability Zones within a region, making it highly resilient to failures.

Furthermore, with Global Tables, you can replicate your data anywhere across the world, in order to be closer to your users to offer a better experience wherever they may be in the world.

DynamoDB fully manages the entire data replication and availability so you don't need to focus on that process, as would be the case with SQL databases that you create yourself.

6. Horizontal Scalability

With more users, comes more demand for resources in your database. As your application scales so will the need for your database to scale.

DynamoDB, being a fully managed database solution, will dynamically add storage nodes for your data as you need it, allowing you to scale horizontally.

This horizontal scalability allows you to accommodate growing datasets and traffic without downtime or performance degradation.

With SQL, adding storage nodes and scaling horizontally is a complex process. DynamoDB gives you the peace of mind that no matter your traffic or the size of your data, it will always be ready to serve your users at lightning speeds.

7. Simplified Development

The first element I want to discuss here is DynamoDB's connection model. To connect to a database, DynamoDB offers HTTP or HTTPS protocols that make the database connection seamless.

DynamoDB fully manages the security and authentication and allows for more fine-grained access control with the Permissions features.

The second element that simplifies development is DynamoDB's API. You have a few methods to call to read and write data. The API offers simple NoSQL queries and some libraries further simplify working with the API.

Other elements worth noting are, simple integrations with other AWS services like Lambda for serverless computing, AppSync for real-time data, and DAX (DynamoDB Accelerator) for high-speed data caching directly integrated with your DynamoDB database.

Conclusion

This article highlights the transformative power of embracing schemaless designs and leveraging purpose-built databases like DynamoDB. Transitioning from an SQL database to DynamoDB comes with many benefits, should your database needs fit a NoSQL design.

In this article, we identified 7 benefits from this migration to DynamoDB, notably the scalability and performance aspects, schema flexibility, and high availability benefits of a fully managed database.

As organizations strive for agility and resilience in data management, DynamoDB stands as a dependable solution, empowering developers to build scalable and high-performance applications without compromising on flexibility or efficiency.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Excelling With DynamoDB. Please consider sharing it with your network if you did.

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I hope to see you in the next week's edition!

Uriel