Database as a service (DBaaS) – Introduction to Serverless on AWS
Database as a service (DBaaS)
DBaaS is a type of SaaS that covers various data storage options and operations. Along with the traditional SQL relational database management systems (RDBMSs), several other types of data stores are now available as managed services, including NoSQL, object storage, time series, graph, and search databases.
Amazon DynamoDB is one of the most popular NoSQL databases available as a service (see Figure 1-5). A DynamoDB table can store billions of item records and still provide CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) operations with single-digit or low-double-digit millisecond latency. You will see the use of DynamoDB in many serverless examples throughout this book.
Figure 1-5. Pictorial representation of Amazon DynamoDB and its data tables
Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is an object storage service capable of handling billions of objects and petabytes of data (see Figure 1-6). Similar to the concept of tables in RDBMSs and DynamoDB, S3 stores the data in buckets, with each bucket having its own specific characteristics.
The emergence of services such as DynamoDB and S3 are just a few examples of how storage needs have changed over time to cater to unstructured data and how the cloud enables enterprises to move away from the limited vertical scaling and mundane operation of traditional RDBMSs to focus on building cloud-scale solutions that bring value to the business.
Figure 1-6. Pictorial representation of Amazon S3 and its data buckets
Function as a service (FaaS)
In simple terms, FaaS is a type of cloud computing service that lets you run your function code without having to provision any hardware yourself. FaaS provided a core piece of the cloud computing puzzle by bringing in the much-needed compute as a service, and it soon became the catalyst for the widespread adoption of serverless. AWS Lambda is the most used FaaS implementation available today (see Figure 1-7).
Figure 1-7. Pictorial representation of AWS Lambda service and functions