AlexDeBrie.com is the blog of Alex DeBrie, an AWS Data Hero and one of the most recognized experts on Amazon DynamoDB and NoSQL data modeling. He writes in depth articles on DynamoDB concepts such as partitions, single table design, transactions, costs, consistency, and one to many relationships, always backed by clear mental models, examples, and tradeoff analysis.
36 articles from this blog
A survey of how distributed databases handle secondary indexes, comparing strategies in DynamoDB, MongoDB, Yugabyte, and others.
A guide on how to model and calculate DynamoDB costs during the design phase to make informed architectural decisions.
Explains the difference between event-driven architectures and event-based compute in serverless applications on AWS.
A developer explains why they prefer the Serverless Framework over AWS CDK for building serverless applications, citing abstraction and workflow benefits.
Analysis of the new DynamoDB paper, covering product-level insights and technical improvements for the managed NoSQL database service.
Demystifying eventual consistency in DynamoDB, explaining its trade-offs and how to handle it effectively in applications.
A guide to understanding the CAP theorem in distributed systems, explaining when it applies and its implications for consistency and availability.
Explores the three different meanings of 'consistency' in databases: from the CAP Theorem, ACID properties, and database consistency models.
Analyzing the compatibility of GraphQL with DynamoDB's single-table design, discussing trade-offs and when each approach is preferable.
A deep dive into DynamoDB partitions, explaining their role in data modeling and performance for the NoSQL database.
A guide to the three most critical DynamoDB limits: item size, query/scan page size, and partition throughput, and how they impact data modeling.
A deep dive into configuring and using AWS API Gateway access logs for debugging and performance analysis of serverless APIs.
A guide to understanding and using DynamoDB Condition Expressions for enforcing data integrity and business rules in AWS.
Learn five strategies for modeling one-to-many relationships in Amazon DynamoDB, including denormalization and composite keys.
Performance testing of DynamoDB Transactions compared to other API calls, including batch writes and failed transactions.
A guide to Amazon DynamoDB Transactions, covering use cases, differences from batch operations, and idempotency handling.
A deep dive into single-table design for DynamoDB, covering its concepts, benefits, and trade-offs for scalable applications.
A guide to building a developer community, focusing on sincerity and engagement strategies like Micro, Macro, and Network.
Three methods for AWS Lambda functions in a VPC to access AWS services like CloudWatch, including NAT Gateway and VPC endpoints.
Explains DynamoDB filter expressions, their limitations, and when to use them versus proper table design for efficient queries.
