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Comment by calsy

9 years ago

I dont believe you are locked in with AWS forever if you choose DynamoDB.

It doesnt use a unique database model that no other DB supports. Its based on NOSQL and it should be simple enough (with effort of course) to export a DynamoDB document store to another NOSQL solution.

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calsy

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dijit  9 years ago

your reply makes me believe you've never migrated database solutions for larger projects, especially ones where you're trying to actually make money and spend little time.

Migrating database solutions is really quite expensive in terms of time. I've done it twice and it's not something to take lightly. The usual recommendation is to never migrate database solutions unless there is a catastrophic problem with continuing with the current.

  • calsy  9 years ago

    If you are talking relational database (I dont know, you just say databases), yes there can be issues exporting foreign keys, views you name it. But is it possible, yes it is.

    NOSQL database on the other hand, completely different scenario. Exporting is a much more steamlined process. Again, its not magic, there is effort, but it is possible.

    Just because you or your company are risk averse or strapped for cash, doesn't mean it's impossible to export a database. All the databases mention have export/import operations available, and as I said you are not locked into AWS if you do not wish to be.

    Oh and don't assume my history thanks, you know nothing of it.

    • dijit  9 years ago

      >Oh and don't assume my history thanks, you know nothing of it.

      I'm going to attempt to be constructive here, but of course I'm biased so please take it with a grain of salt.

      I cannot look past the words you speak, they are how I form an opinion of you on the internet. I cannot see your history, I cannot see your face/body language. Your words are your personality, they show your experience.

      What you've said reminds me of similar people I know who have a distinct lack of experience, so, I lump you into that category.

      In an attempt to understand you better I have peeked into your comment history. I can honestly say that I've not seen as much arrogance and bitterness for quite some time on hackernews.

      Instead of trying to be snide and assuming you're better than people, or trying to passive-aggressively "win" a conversation.. Why don't we try to extract as much understanding or knowledge from every interaction on HN as possible.

      most people on hackernews have some strong technical background, we have people here who are absolutely the forefront of their industry posting as regular users (Bryan Cantrill and Branden Gregg come to mind) which is absolutely humbling.

      Now, with that out of the way, I invite you to read the topic.

      "DynamoDB cannot store empty strings"

      contrast that to your comment

      >"NOSQL database on the other hand, completely different scenario. Exporting is a much more steamlined process."

      NOSQL solutions aren't comparable if they handle types differently, they suffer most, if not all, of the conversion problems of relational databases.

      The problem I faced when converting database solution was always types... Triggers, views and other relational-isms are a one-time investment fix.. converting types can easily lead to corruption of a few columns for a few rows.. how do you check that?

      The answer is writing a lot of tests, and doing things especially carefully and incrementally.

      and also, optimising for more revenue is not being cash-strapped, it's being wise enough to be able to reinvest capital in a new venture.. it's incredibly unwise to throw money up the wall for no reason other than it would cost a lot more to switch away due to vendor lock-in. (which is a reason not to move in of itself) which is what I'm warning about.

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