Programming Amazon Web Services

Chapter 13. SimpleDB (Beta)

Amazon’s SimpleDB service provides reliable storage of structured textual data and a query language to locate the information you need. It allows you to store, modify, query and retrieve data sets without the need to run and maintain a traditional database server.

The service is designed to minimize the complexity and administrative overhead of data management. SimpleDB does not require a predefined schema; instead, it allows you to alter the structure and content of your information whenever you need to. The service also automatically indexes every piece of information stored within it to ensure queries will run as quickly as possible without the need for performance tuning. SimpleDB’s data management features are intended to complement the other infrastructure services provided by Amazon, which makes it possible to build your application with less reliance on your own physical infrastructure.

Note

The database features provided by SimpleDB are radically different from those offered by traditional relational database management systems (RDBMS). These differences will make your life easier in some cases, but they may force you to completely rethink your data storage and retrieval strategy in others. Above all, you must not assume that SimpleDB will be always be a workable replacement for an RDBMS database; it is, after all, a simple database service, not a complete one.

SimpleDB Overview

The SimpleDB service provides three main resources: domains, items, ...