DynamoDB 10 years later

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by vasili111 on Thursday January 20, 2022 @09:44AM (#30009484)

>Engineering, however, was a disaster story. Code is horribly written and very few tests are maintained to make sure deployments go without issues. There was too much emphasis on deployment and getting fixes/features out over making sure it won't break anything else. It was a common scenario to release a new feature and put duct tape all around it to make sure it "works". And way too many operational issues. There are a lot of ways to break DynamoDB :)

>Overall, though, the product is very solid and it's one of the few database that you can say "just works" when it comes to scalability and reliability (as most AWS services are)

How those two can coexist?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by 0xbadcafebee on Thursday January 20, 2022 @12:07PM (#30011607)

You throw bodies at it. A small bunch of people will be overworked, stressed, constantly fighting fires and struggling to fight technical debt, implement features, and keep the thing afloat. Production is always a hair away from falling over but luck and grit keeps it running. To the team it's a nightmare, to the business everything is fine.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by wnolens on Thursday January 20, 2022 @01:35PM (#30012744)

this is the answer.

source: currently being burned out on an adjacent aws team..

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by 0xbadcafebee on Thursday January 20, 2022 @02:28PM (#30013529)

That sucks, man. If they won't move you to another team, just get out of there. We don't benefit by suffering for them, and they're not gonna change.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by wnolens on Friday January 21, 2022 @07:35PM (#30031828)

Yea. I can probably move to a more chill team, but I wouldn't work on anything nearly as cutting edge. I mentally check out for weeks at a time, then get back into it and deliver something large. I'm low key job hunting, but don't entirely trust that it'll be different anywhere else (previous jobs were like this too)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by dustingetz on Thursday January 20, 2022 @05:38PM (#30016290)

literally every co

if you want to know why capitalism causes this, start a startup and prioritize quality, do not get to market, do not raise money, do not pass go, watch dumpster fires with millions of betrayed and angry users raise their series d

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by badhombres on Thursday January 20, 2022 @09:46AM (#30009500)

I mean eventually enough duct tape can be solid like a tank :)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by jeffreygoesto on Thursday January 20, 2022 @09:51AM (#30009569)

Or a bridge...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by bastardoperator on Thursday January 20, 2022 @01:09PM (#30012420)

Or a boat...

https://flexsealproducts.com/products/flex-tape

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by indogooner on Thursday January 20, 2022 @10:11AM (#30009833)

It sounds incredulous but I have heard similar things about Oracle. May be a large dev team can duct tape enough so that the product is solid.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by gfd on Thursday January 20, 2022 @11:14AM (#30010800)

You're probably thinking of this comment, oracle and 25 million lines of c code: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18442941

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by eternalban on Thursday January 20, 2022 @11:03AM (#30010618)

They both likely have solid 80% solutions (design) and incrementally cover the 20% gap as need arises. This in turn adds to operational complexity.

Alternative would be to attempt a near 'perfect' solution for the product requirements and that may either hit an impossibility wall or may require substantial long term effort that would impede product development cycles. So likely the former approach is the smarter choice.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by meepmorp on Thursday January 20, 2022 @09:48AM (#30009528)

You need the really good duct tape.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:DynamoDB 10 years later by StreamBright on Thursday January 20, 2022 @07:12PM (#30017346)

AWS level of disaster is very different to an average disaster. :)

[ Parent | on HN ]