Amazon SimpleDB Developer Guide

252 Pages·2010·8.56 MB·English

by  Prabhakar Chaganti

Amazon SimpleDB Developer
Guide
Scale your application's database on the cloud using
Amazon SimpleDB
Prabhakar Chaganti
Rich Helms
professional expertise distilled
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Amazon SimpleDB Developer Guide
Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
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critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy
of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is
sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt
Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages
caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
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companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: June 2010
Production Reference: 2240510
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
32 Lincoln Road
Olton
Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.
ISBN 978-1-847197-34-4
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Tina Negus ([email protected])
Credits
Authors Editorial Team Leader
Prabhakar Chaganti Gagandeep Singh
Rich Helms
Project Team Leader
Lata Basantani
Reviewers
Deepak Anupalli
Project Coordinator
Anders Samuelsson
Joel Goveya
Ashley Tate
Proofreader
Acquisition Editor Lynda Silwoski
James Lumsden
Graphics
Development Editors Nilesh Mohite
Dhwani Devater
Production Coordinator
Reshma Sundaresan
Adline Swetha Jesuthas
Technical Editor
Cover Work
Ishita Dhabalia
Adline Swetha Jesuthas
Indexer
Monica Ajmera Mehta
Foreword
Most software developers who work on the Internet love change. Change presents
a new challenge, a new paradigm, and new technologies to learn. To realize this,
all you have to do is look at the evolution of computers. During the 70s, we worked
in a world of mainframes and raised floors. Only special people got to touch the
computer, while others had to be content watching from outside of the fishbowl.
The 80s brought the mini-computer with dedicated CRT terminals. You could show
data on the screen in any color as long as it was green, but the computer was down
the hall in the back room. The 80s also introduced the personal computer. As PC
power grew, the mini was replaced with the LAN-connected PC.
The 90s saw the advent of the Internet, and people dialed in, and in the early 2000s,
the Internet went viral. As high-speed connections became common, the Internet
replaced corporate networks. Computers went from rooms to luggables to "in my
briefcase" to "in my pocket."
In 2010, we are seeing the growth of cloud computing. Selecting a brand and model
of server computer is being replaced with renting a virtual server at a hosting service
like Amazon. The purchaser of these virtual servers doesn't have to select a hardware
"brand." I no more care about the brand of computer than I would care about what
brand of pipe the water utility used to connect to my house. All I am buying is cycles
and reliability.
This move to virtual servers also changes the capital required to propose the
next viral application. I don't need to buy a large database cluster, hoping for the
acceptance to fill it. I am billed for usage, not capacity. SimpleDB is one of those
virtual offerings and the topic of this book.
Rich Helms
About the Authors
Prabhakar Chaganti is the founder and CTO of Ylastic, a startup that is building a
single unified interface to architect, manage, and monitor a user's entire AWS Cloud
computing environment: EC2, S3, RDS, AutoScaling, ELB, Cloudwatch, SQS, and
SimpleDB. He is the author of Xen Virtualization and GWT Java AJAX Programming,
both by Packt Publishing, and is also the winner of the community choice award
for the most innovative virtual appliance in the VMware Global Virtual Appliance
Challenge. He hangs out on Twitter as @pchaganti.
"It's never been done" is a call to action for Rich Helms. He has built a career
on breaking new ground in the computer field. He developed CARES (Computer
Assisted Recovery Enhancement System) for the Metropolitan Toronto Police in
Canada. CARES was the first computer system in the world for aging missing
children. CARES has been internationally recognized as pioneering work in child
aging. Rich has also created several generations of e-learning platforms including
Learn it script and most recently Educate Press.
Rich can be reached at http://webmasterinresidence.ca.
Rich is a seasoned software developer with over 30 years of experience. He spent 22
years in various positions at IBM including Chief Image Technology Architect. His
credentials range from deep technical work (five patents in hardware and software)
to running multinational R&D.
About the Reviewers
Deepak Anupalli is Architect for the Server Engineering group at Pramati
Technologies. He has deep insight into various Java/J2EE technologies. He
represents Pramati on the EJB and JPA expert groups and has led the Java EE 5
certification effort of Pramati Server. He is currently leading the effort to build a
standards-based web-scale Application server. He is a visiting faculty member with
IIIT-Hyderabad for a course on middleware and also speaks at various technology
conferences. He holds a graduate degree in Computer Science and Engineering from
National Institute of Technology (NIT Warangal, India).
Anders Samuelsson has over 25 years of experience in the computing industry.
The main focus during this time has been with computer security. He currently
works for Amazon.com with Amazon Web Services.
I'd like to thank my wife Malena and my son Daniel and daughter
Ida, for always standing by me and allowing me to spend time
helping out with this book. I love you forever.
Ashley Tate is the founder of Coditate Software and the creator of Simple Savant,
an advanced C# interface to SimpleDB. He is currently working on GridRoom, an
application for collaborative sports-video review built on several Amazon Web
Services, including SimpleDB. He lives near Atlanta with his wife and four children.
You can find him online at http://blog.coditate.com.

I would like to dedicate this book to my brother Madhukar, who gave us all a big scare, and
with typical panache came out of it stronger than ever, my sister-in-law Meghna for putting
the rock of Gibraltar to shame and showing us all how to handle and deal with adversity,
and my nephew Yuv, the two year old fire cracker. My two daughters Anika and Anya were
understanding and patient beyond their years as I stuck to my Mac at all kinds of weird
hours. Above all, this book would not have made it into the station without the constant
support, love and encouragement from my lovely wife Nitika!
Prabhakar Chaganti
A special thanks to Dorothea, Mike, Mary, our little girl Margaret, and the gang at WCDR.
Rich Helms