Book Image

Amazon SimpleDB Developer Guide

Book Image

Amazon SimpleDB Developer Guide

Overview of this book

SimpleDB is a highly scalable, simple-to-use, and inexpensive database in the cloud from Amazon Web Services. But in order to use SimpleDB, you really have to change your mindset. This isn't a traditional relational database; in fact it's not relational at all. For developers who have experience working with relational databases, this may lead to misconceptions as to how SimpleDB works.This practical book aims to address your preconceptions on how SimpleDB will work for you. You will be quickly led through the differences between relational databases and SimpleDB, and the implications of using SimpleDB. Throughout this book, there is an emphasis on demonstrating key concepts with practical examples for Java, PHP, and Python developers.You will be introduced to this massively scalable schema-less key-value data store: what it is, how it works, and why it is such a game-changer. You will then explore the basic functionality offered by SimpleDB including querying, code samples, and a lot more. This book will help you deploy services outside the Amazon cloud and access them from any web host.You will see how SimpleDB gives you the freedom to focus on application development. As you work through this book you will be able to optimize the performance of your applications using parallel operations, caching with memcache, asynchronous operations, and more.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Amazon SimpleDB Developer Guide
Credits
Foreword
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
Preface

Foreword

Most software developers who work on the Internet love change. Change presents a new challenge, a new paradigm, and new technologies to learn. To realize this, all you have to do is look at the evolution of computers. During the 70s, we worked in a world of mainframes and raised floors. Only special people got to touch the computer, while others had to be content watching from outside of the fishbowl.

The 80s brought the mini-computer with dedicated CRT terminals. You could show data on the screen in any color as long as it was green, but the computer was down the hall in the back room. The 80s also introduced the personal computer. As PC power grew, the mini was replaced with the LAN-connected PC.

The 90s saw the advent of the Internet, and people dialed in, and in the early 2000s, the Internet went viral. As high-speed connections became common, the Internet replaced corporate networks. Computers went from rooms to luggables to "in my briefcase" to "in my pocket."

In 2010, we are seeing the growth of cloud computing. Selecting a brand and model of server computer is being replaced with renting a virtual server at a hosting service like Amazon. The purchaser of these virtual servers doesn't have to select a hardware "brand." I no more care about the brand of computer than I would care about what brand of pipe the water utility used to connect to my house. All I am buying is cycles and reliability.

This move to virtual servers also changes the capital required to propose the next viral application. I don't need to buy a large database cluster, hoping for the acceptance to fill it. I am billed for usage, not capacity. SimpleDB is one of those virtual offerings and the topic of this book.

Rich Helms