AWS for Cloud Computing
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Quick Recap
[Link] – Event-driven serverless compute
[Link] – NoSQL database
[Link] – Elastic Container Service – Container
orchestration
4.S3 Glacier – Archival storage
[Link] – Real-time data streaming
[Link] – Data warehousing
[Link] – Elastic MapReduce - Big data processing
[Link]/DR – Disaster recovery strategies
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AWS Lambda (Serverless Compute)
• Analogy: Food truck – you pay only when it’s
running
• Use case: Auto-thumbnail generation for images
• Netflix uses it for live backups
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DynamoDB (NoSQL Database)
Analogy:
•Vending machine – instant access with a key
•Use case: Tracking live bus locations
•Handles millions of transactions per second
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ECS (Containers)
• Analogy: Shipping containers – works the same
everywhere
• Use case: Run a web app in Docker identically on
laptop & cloud
• Spotify uses it for microservices
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S3 Glacier (Archival Storage)
• Analogy: Storing old clothes in a warehouse –
cheaper but slower
• Use case: Archiving student records for 20 years
• 11 nines durability (99.999999999%)
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Kinesis (Real-time Streaming)
• Analogy: Live cricket score feed
• Use case: Real-time Twitter hashtag analysis
• NASA used it for Mars rover telemetry
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Redshift (Data Warehousing)
• Analogy: Super-fast librarian – finds books
instantly
• Use case: Retail sales analysis across 500 stores
• One of the fastest-growing AWS services
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EMR (Big Data Processing)
• Analogy: Hiring thousands of interns to
summarize newspapers overnight
• Use case: Traffic camera analysis across a city
• Can process petabytes at a few $ per hour
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AWS Backup & Disaster Recovery
• Analogy: Spare house key with a friend
• Use case: Banks failover to backup data centers in seconds
• Recovery options range from seconds (pilot light) to hours (cold
backup)
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Practice Scenarios
• Scenario 1: Build an online photo contest app (which services will you
use?)
• Scenario 2: A bus company wants real-time route tracking + analysis
• Scenario 3: A news platform wants to process social media live and
store data for reports
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Quiz
1. Lambda is useful when _____.
2. DynamoDB is what type of database?
3. Which AWS service is best for archiving?
4. Which service is for real-time streaming?
5. What does ECS manage?
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Summary
• AWS services in Module 3 = Scalability + Real-
time + Big Data + Reliability
• Each service solves a specific real-world
challenge
• Together, they form the backbone of modern
cloud apps
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Module 3: AWS Database Services
• AWS Lambda
• Amazon Dynamo DB
• Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service)
• Amazon S3 Glacier, Amazon Kinesis,
• Amazon Redshift, Amazon EMR (Elastic MapReduce),
• AWS Disaster Recovery and Backup.
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What is DynamoDB?
• DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service by
AWS.
• It is designed to provide single-digit millisecond
performance at any scale.
• It’s serverless → no need to manage servers, patch
databases, or worry about scaling.
• Think of DynamoDB as Amazon’s vending machine for
data: you press a button (query with a key), and instantly
get your result, no matter how big the machine (database)
is.
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Key Characteristics
• NoSQL database → stores data in key–value pairs and
documents (not traditional rows/columns).
• Fully managed → AWS takes care of hardware, replication,
patching, and scaling.
• High performance → low latency (< 10 ms).
• Highly scalable → can handle millions of requests per
second.
• Secure → integrates with IAM for access control.
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Data Model
• Table → main structure (like in SQL).
• Items → equivalent of a row.
• Attributes → columns inside an item.
• Primary Key → unique identifier for each item. Two types:
• Partition Key (e.g., StudentID = 101)
• Partition Key + Sort Key (e.g., StudentID = 101, Semester = 5)
• Analogy: Think of partition key like your Roll Number (unique ID), and
sort key like your Semester.
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Features
• On-demand or provisioned capacity → choose whether to pay per
request or reserve throughput.
• Auto-scaling → automatically adjusts read/write capacity based on
traffic.
• DAX (DynamoDB Accelerator) → in-memory cache for even faster
queries.
• Global Tables → replicate data across multiple AWS regions.
• Streams → capture changes in real-time for event-driven apps.
• Backup & Restore → point-in-time recovery.
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Use Cases
• Mobile Apps → store user profiles, preferences, and chat history.
• IoT Applications → store data from thousands of sensors in real
time.
• Gaming → track player scores, progress, and leaderboards.
• E-commerce → product catalogs, shopping carts, and inventory
management.
• Transport → track bus or delivery vehicle locations.
• Example: [Link] itself uses DynamoDB to handle millions
of product catalog updates per second.
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Real-World Examples
• Snapchat uses DynamoDB to store user stories
and metadata.
• Zoom uses DynamoDB for its video conferencing
metadata (participants, meeting IDs).
• Netflix uses DynamoDB for recommendation
engines and viewing history.
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Advantages
• Fully managed (no admin work).
• Auto-scaling for unpredictable workloads.
• Low latency at any scale.
• High availability (multi-region replication).
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Limitations
• Not suitable for complex queries or joins (SQL databases are better
for that).
• Costs can rise with very high read/write if not optimized.
• Query flexibility is limited compared to RDS.
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Analogy
• Imagine your college vending machine:
• You enter your Student ID (partition key).
• You enter the semester (sort key).
• Instantly, the machine (DynamoDB) gives your mark
sheet (item).
• It doesn’t matter how many students or semesters are
in the system — retrieval is fast and consistent.
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Demo Idea (Theoretical Walkthrough)
•Step 1:
Go to AWS Console → DynamoDB.
•Step 2:
Create a table: Student Records with Student ID as
partition key.
•Step 3:
Add an item: {Student ID: 101, Name: “John”,
Semester: 5, GPA: 8.5}
•Step 4:
Query using Student ID → instantly get result.
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Amazon Dynamo DB
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Amazon Dynamo DB
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Amazon Dynamo DB
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Amazon Dynamo DB
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Provisioned mode
• Read Capacity Unit
• The total number of read capacity units depends on the item size, and read
consistency model.
• Read Capacity unit represents two types of consistency models:
• Strongly Consistent model: Read Capacity Unit represents one strong consistent read per
second for an item up to 4KB in size.
• Eventually Consistent model: Read Capacity Unit represents two eventually consistent
reads per second for an item up to 4KB in size.
• DynamoDB will require additional read capacity units when an item size is
greater than 4KB. For example, if the size of an item is 8KB, 2 read capacity units
are required for strongly consistent read while 1 read capacity unit is required
for eventually consistent read.
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Write Capacity Unit
• The total number of write capacity unit depends on the item size.
• Only 1 write capacity unit is required for an item up to size 1KB.
• DynamoDB will require additional write capacity units when size is
greater than 1KB. For example, if an item size is 2KB, two write
capacity units are required to perform 1 write per second.
• For example, if you create a table with 20 write capacity units, then
you can perform 20 writes per second for an item up to 1KB in size.
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Practice Question
• Your team is building a serverless application for smart home
monitoring system that collects data from multiple IoT sensors
installed in multiple houses. You want to reduce infrastructure
management, automatically scale your backend code, and integrate
with services like S3 and DynamoDB. Using your understanding of this
AWS service explain what the service is and how it works based on an
event -driven model and also discuss the benefits of using this
serverless approach compared to traditional server - based models.
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