Dr. Dobb's | Amazon SimpleDB: Unlimited Public Beta Announced

Amazon SimpleDB: Unlimited Public Beta Announced

Any developer or business may now sign up and start using the service -- immediately

December 01, 2008
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/web-development/amazon-simpledb-unlimited-public-beta-an/212201235

Amazon Web Services has announced the unlimited public beta of Amazon SimpleDB. Any developer or business may now sign up and start using the service immediately. Amazon SimpleDB is a web service providing the core functionality of a database, including fast storage and simplified querying of structured data. This service works in close conjunction with Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), collectively providing the ability to store, process and query data sets in the cloud, making web-scale computing available to developers without large capital outlays. Also announced today, Amazon SimpleDB users can take advantage of a free monthly usage tier, and reduced pricing for structured data storage. Amazon SimpleDB is a web service providing the core database functions of indexing and querying.

According to AWS, Amazon SimpleDB is simpler than a traditional, relational database as it requires no schema, automatically indexes data, and provides simple APIs for storage and access. Amazon SimpleDB lets you easily scale database processing and frees you from many of the complexities of capacity planning while transforming large capital expenditures into much smaller operating costs. Amazon SimpleDB also integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, such as Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2, to provide the infrastructure for web-scale applications.

For at least the next six months, Amazon SimpleDB users will enjoy a free tier of usage. Every month, customers receive 25 machine hours, 1 GB of data transfer in and out, and 1 GB of storage at no charge. Amazon SimpleDB customers will also now enjoy significantly reduced storage pricing at only $0.25 per gigabyte per month, a price decrease of more than 83%.

Customers can now also sign up for AWS Premium Support for Amazon SimpleDB. AWS Premium Support offers technical assistance from the Amazon Web Services team whenever and as frequently as customers need it. Whether for operational issues or technical questions, Amazon SimpleDB customers now have access to developer support engineers around the clock, and can count on predictable response time and personalized support.

"Traditional clustered relational databases often require a sizeable upfront investment and complex design. Our customers have asked us for a simple, scalable, reliable and low latency alternative," said Matt Domo, General Manager of Amazon SimpleDB. "Amazon SimpleDB eliminates complexity so that developers and businesses can focus on optimizing applications and not administering their database. We're pleased that we can now make the service available broadly and also pass along the cost savings we've achieved."

To help customers better plan their future hardware and software investments, AWS also announced plans to release new features in the next few weeks that will make building cloud-based applications even easier with Amazon SimpleDB. These enhancements are in response to direct customer feedback and include:

SELECT API. With this feature, developers will be able to employ a familiar SQL-like query language when constructing queries and building applications. The SELECT API will further reduce the training required for new developers prior to using Amazon SimpleDB.
Batch Put. Enables developers to streamline the upload of multiple items or attributes with a single batch API request rather than multiple single-item calls.