Key-value stores

The simplest model: get and put a value by its key. Extremely fast and easy to partition, but you can only query by key, so the access patterns must be known upfront.

Where it shows up in real systems

  • Key-value store

    Data is spread across partitions by the hash of its key, so throughput scales almost without limit as long as keys are well distributed. A single very popular key hits one partition's limit and gets throttled. On-demand mode follows traffic but absorbs sudden jumps above twice the previous peak with throttling.

    In production: Amazon DynamoDB, Azure Cosmos DB, Google Bigtable, Riak, FoundationDB

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