Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST amount of operational overhead?
Set up a DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) cluster. Route all read requests through DAX.
Set up Amazon ElastiCache for Redis between the DynamoDB table and the web application. Route all read requests through Redis.
Set up Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached between the DynamoDB table and the web application. Route all read requests through Memcached.
Set up Amazon DynamoDB Streams on the table, and have AWS Lambda read from the table and populate Amazon ElastiCache. Route all read requests through ElastiCache.
Explanations:
Amazon DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) is a fully managed, in-memory caching service specifically designed for DynamoDB. It provides fast response times for read operations by caching the results of queries, thus reducing latency without requiring significant changes to the application. DAX requires minimal operational overhead since it is fully managed and automatically handles scaling and failover.
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis introduces additional complexity as it is not natively integrated with DynamoDB. It would require managing the caching layer and implementing logic to populate the cache, which increases operational overhead. While Redis can provide performance improvements, the additional management burden makes this solution less ideal compared to DAX.
Similar to option B, using Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached also involves additional operational overhead, including managing the cache and ensuring it is populated with data from DynamoDB. It lacks the native integration that DAX provides, leading to more complex architecture and maintenance requirements.
While using DynamoDB Streams with AWS Lambda to populate ElastiCache can improve performance, this approach introduces significant operational complexity. It requires managing the Lambda function and the caching layer, leading to increased maintenance and potential points of failure. DAX is a more streamlined solution specifically optimized for DynamoDB use cases.
From what I’ve heard, the answer is:
Set up a DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) cluster. Route all read requests through DAX.