AWS fundamentals: What is DynamoDB?
In this blog post series we’ll take a closer look at Amazon web services (AWS) and all their Serverless related services in detail.
Today we look at DynamoDB. What is it and how does the Serverless framework use it?
This chapter is a free sample taken from our “Learn Serverless” book.
DynamoDB is a NoSQL database service with nearly infinite scalability and flexibility.
NoSQL means that you don’t have to specify a schema which declares what kind of data you store (like you would do when you use a relational database). You simply create a table which should hold your data and store the data.
With DynamoDB you can store key-value or document based data inside those tables.
The concept of NoSQL data stores is relatively new compared to old, relational based database technologies.
In the recent years more and more data was generated that needs to be stored and analyzed in a flexible and easy was. NoSQL databases try to target those needs.
DynamoDB related databases are e.g. CouchDB or MongoDB
How Serverless uses DynamoDB
DynamoDB is not used per default in Serverless. However you should definitely consider DynamoDB for your database operations as it nicely integrates into the whole AWS system.
