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Preferred types of databases and when to use

Creating a new database​

Before creating a new database, please consult one of the Senior Engineers and/or confirm at the Data meetup if this type of data is stored elsewhere already.

  • Data might already exist and can be reused as per our approaches.
  • Existing data entities could potentially be re-iterated and expanded to include additional data properties, instead of creating a new data source making it less restrictive for reusability.
  • Check our SwaggerHub page, which lists all of our APIs.

If a new data store is required:

Choosing the right type of database technology​

Assuming knowledge of the main differences between a SQL and a NoSQL database, those are some of the questions which will help us to choose the right type of database for our domain/service when the choice is not obvious:

1. Do we have a lot of updates and very frequent updates per second?

  • Yes: PostgreSQL - A NoSQL DB is probably not the best solution because updates are more expensive than the reads, as we have to read and write a document.
  • No: DynamoDB.

2. Is our data highly structured and predictable?

  • Yes: PostgreSQL - RDBMS are used when we know in advance the structure of the data and it does not change often (rigid structures) and/or is not in active agile development.
  • No: DynamoDB - When our data structure changes and there is a need to have flexibility, NoSQL is a good choice, especially for continuously evolving data entities as part of agile development.

3. Do we need to support a lot of queries on different entity’s properties (this question excludes search functionalities)?

  • Yes: PostgreSQL - Queries on properties different than Id and PartitionKey are anti-pattern for scaling out and so not suitable for NoSQL DB, those queries should be executed occasionally.
  • No: DynamoDB

4. Do we need low latency/sub-second data access? (this question excludes search functionalities)?

  • Yes: DynamoDB - When there is a need for low latency data access, NoSQL tends to be really fast and in the order of ~10ms
  • No: PostgreSQL

5. Do we need to be able to scale in the future?

  • Yes: DynamoDB - NoSQL databases are horizontally scalable.
  • No: PostgreSQL - RDBMS are not horizontally scalable, they can be scaled only vertically.

6. Is high availability important and can eventual consistency be tolerated?

  • Yes: DynamoDB - Provides better availability than a SQL database, but we have eventual consistency.
  • No: PostgreSQL - Provides strong consistency but availability is not as good as a NoSQL database with multiple independent nodes.

If the above information is not sufficient to make a choice, please raise this as a question during one of the weekly Data meetups.

Preferred database technology​

For NoSQL data sources, our preference is to use DynamoDB as the database technology.

For SQL, relational databases, our preference is to use RDS PostgreSQL as the database technology.