AWS storage with one float - amazon-web-services

I have one key-value float as well as a much larger JSON-object that I want to store in the cloud for my iOS application. I want to use DynamoDB for the storage of my larger JSON-object, but I am wondering what tool I should use to store my key-value float. I need to be able to read / write to this key-value every second, whereas I only read / write from my JSON-object much less. I am thinking of using DyanamoDB for the JSON, and Redis for the key-value string that I would like to store, but because I am updating the value so often, it doesn't seem right -- I cannot cache the value. Is there any AWS tool that has faster latency than just storing everything on DynamoDB? Or should I just be storing everything on the same place (I am also looking to store user sessions, and I know Redis is also good at session storing)?

Either dynamoDB using the DAX acceleration, or redis will offer sub-millisecond write times.
https://aws.amazon.com/dynamodb/dax/

Related

Data Storage and Analytics on AWS

I have one data analytics requirement on AWS. I have limited knowledge on Big Data processing, but based on my
analysis, I have figured out some options.
The requirement is to collect data by calling a Provider API every 30 mins. (data ingestion)
The data is mainly structured.
This data need to be stored in a storage (S3 data lake or Red Shift.. not sure)and various aggregations/dimensions from this data are to be provided through a REST API.
There is a future requirement to run ML algorithms on the original data and hence the storage need to be decided accordingly. So based on this, can you suggest:
How to ingest data (Lambda to run at a scheduled interval and pull data, store in the storage OR any better way to pull data in AWS)
How to store (store in S3 or RedShift)
Data Analytics (currently some monthly, weekly aggregations), what tools can be used? What tools to use if I am storing data in S3.
Expose the analytics results through an API. (Hope I can use Lambda to query the Analytics engine in the previous step)
Ingestion is simple. If the retrieval is relatively quick, then scheduling an AWS Lambda function is a good idea.
However, all the answers to your other questions really depend upon how you are going to use the data, and then work backwards.
For Storage, Amazon S3 makes sense at least for the initial storage of the retrieved data, but might (or might not) be appropriate for the API and Analytics.
If you are going to provide an API, then you will need to consider how the API code (eg using AWS API Gateway) will need to retrieve the data. For example, is it identical to the blob of data original retrieved, or are there complex transformations required or perhaps combining of data from other locations and time intervals. This will help determine how the data should be stored so that it is easily retrieved.
Data Analytics needs will also drive how your data is stored. Consider whether an SQL database sufficient. If there are millions and billions of rows, you could consider using Amazon Redshift. If the data is kept in Amazon S3, then you might be able to use Amazon Athena. The correct answer depends completely upon how you intend to access and process the data.
Bottom line: Consider first how you will use the data, then determine the most appropriate place to store it. There is no generic answer that we can provide.

Database suggestion for large unstructured datasets to integrate with elasticsearch

A scenario where we have millions of records saved in database, currently I was using dynamodb for saving metadata(and also do write, update and delete operations on objects), S3 for storing files(eg: files can be images, where its associated metadata is stored in dynamoDb) and elasticsearch for indexing and searching. But due to dynamodb limit of 400kb for a row(a single object), it was not sufficient for data to be saved. I thought about saving for an object in different versions in dynamodb itself, but it would be too complicated.
So I was thinking for replacement of dynamodb with some better storage:
AWS DocumentDb
S3 for saving metadata also, along with object files
So which one is better option among both in your opinion and why, which is also cost effective. (Also easy to sync with elasticsearch, but this ES syncing is not much issue as somehow it is possible for both)
If you have any other better suggestions than these two you can also tell me those.
I would suggest looking at DocumentDB over Amazon S3 based on your use case for the following reasons:
Pricing of storing the data would be $0.023 for standard and $0.0125 for infrequent access per GB per month (whereas Document DB is $0.10per GB-month), depending on your size this could add up greatly. If you use IA be aware that your costs for retrieval could add up greatly.
Whilst you would not directly get the data down you would use either Athena or S3 Select to filter. Depending on the data size being queried it would take from a few seconds to possibly minutes (not the milliseconds you requested).
For unstructured data storage in S3 and the querying technologies around it are more targeted at a data lake used for analysis. Whereas DocumentDB is more driven for performance within live applications (it is a MongoDB compatible data store after all).

Elasticache / Redis Timestamp of new data

Does Elasticache store the time when a data is added to the cache? I want to filter data on my cache based on the time it was added but I can't find a clear answer if this information is stored in Elasticache automatically or if I have to add this information (timestamp) manually for each data inserted in the cache?
Thanks!
Neither Redis nor ElastiCache's Redis-compatible service store the timestamp automatically.
This would be inneficient as many use causes don't require it, so it's a client application implementation detail.
You may use a sorted set to store this information, so you can query for date ranges. And you can use Redis server time automatically if you use a Lua script. See How to store in Redis sorted set with server-side timestamp as score?.
This is particularly important if you have multiple nodes connecting, as they may have clock differences.

AWS hosted data storage for storing simple entities

I need to choose data storage for simple system. The main purpose of the system is storing events - simple entities with timestamp, user id and type. No joins. Just single table.
Stored data will be fetched rarely (compared with writes). I expect following read operations:
get latest events for a list of users
get latest events of a type for a list of users
I expect about 0.5-1 million writes a day. Data older than 2 years can be removed.
I'm looking for best fitted service provided by AWS. I wonder if using redshift is like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut?
For your requirement you can use AWS DynamoDB and also define the TTL values to remove the older items automatically. You get the following advantages.
Fully managed data storage
Able to scale with the need for write throughput (Though it can be costly)
Use sort key with timestamp to query latest items.
I would also like to check the AWS Simple DB as it looks more fit(in a first glance) for your requirements.
Please refer this article which explains some practical user experience.
http://www.masonzhang.com/2013/06/2-reasons-why-we-select-simpledb.html

Storing Chat Log on AWS DynamoDB?

I am thinking of building a chat app with AWS DynamoDB. The app will support 1:1 and group chats.
I want to create one table for each one of the chats, where there is a record for each sent chat text line. Is DynamoDB suitable for this kind of job?
I am also thinking of merging both tables. But is this a good idea, if there are – let's assume – 100k or 1000k users?
I think you may run into problems with the read capacity on your table. The write capacity should be ok, as there are not so many messages coming in per second (e.g. 10 or so), but you'll need to constantly read from it for all users, so that'll be expensive.
If you want to use DynamoDB just as storage and distribute the chat messages like in any normal chat over the network, then it may make sense, depending on your use cases. You could, assuming you have a hash key UserId and Timestamp, query all messages from a specific user during a specific period as a result. If you want, however, search within the chat text (a much more useful feature, probably), then DynamoDB won't work per se. It's not like SQL, where you could do a LIKE '%abc%' query (which isn't a good idea in SQL either).
Probably you're better off using S3 as data storage and ElasticSearch as search instrument. If you require the aforementioned use case "get all messages from user X in timespan S" (as a simple example) you could additionally use DynamoDB to store metadata, such as UserId, Timestamp, PositionInFile or something like that.