Chapter 10
Using NoSQL in the Cloud
WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?
- Exploring ready-to-use NoSQL databases in the cloud
- Leveraging Google AppEngine and its scalable data store
- Using Amazon SimpleDB
Most current-generation popular applications, like Google and Amazon, have achieved high availability and the ability to concurrently service millions of users by scaling out horizontally among multiple machines, spread across multiple data centers. Success stories of large-scale web applications like those from Google and Amazon have proven that in horizontally scaled environments, NoSQL solutions tend to shine over their relational counterparts. Horizontally scaled environments available on-demand and provisioned as required have been christened as the “cloud.” If scalability and availability is your priority, NoSQL in the cloud is possibly the ideal setup.
In some situations, both relational and non-relational stores have been used in combination. It would be inaccurate to say that only NoSQL works in horizontally scaled environments. A lot depends on the required scale, the underlying data structure, and the transactional integrity expectations in the application.
Many cloud service providers exist and multiple NoSQL products are available. In many cases, like Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), you have the choice to install any NoSQL product you want to use. Appendix A covers instructions ...
