Database-driven realtime architectures are becoming more and more common as evidenced by key backers and widespread use of software like Firebase and Supabase. The two key priorities for an app following database-driven realtime messaging are long-term storage and change data capture (CDC) updates from the database. In this two part article series, we’ll take a detailed look at a fully serverless chat app where you can edit previously published messages.

Ever since E. F. Codd introduced the first relational model for storing data at IBM in 1970, the industry has picked up the database technology and used it for its competitive advantage. The relational database management system - or RDBMS - was the default technology for storing and accessing data for a long time. It supported transactional data storage, the building of data products, and was the go-to model for data that was used in data-driven decisioning.

MongoDB vs DynamoDB: How do you choose between them? Whether you are a two-man team bootstrapping a proof of concept or an established one battling with high throughput and heavy load; this post can serve as a guidepost in your decision process. Before going into the details, a brief history lesson on how these technologies emerged is pertinent; you must understand the optimal conditions for running these systems and how they operate in the wild before making an informed choice.

The world of big data is getting bigger every day. As the volume of data increases exponentially, businesses of all sizes try to capture raw data, process it, and extract insights for competitive decision-making. The end-to-end operation of extracting value from data is called the ETL process. It stands for: A crucial component of the ETL process is the data storage aspect. The two main contentious architectures for storage solutions are databases and data warehouses. But how do they differ?

In this guide, we'll discuss what a database schema is, six database schema designs, and how and why they are used. We know a lot of thought goes into database construction. Before creating any database, developers plan what it should include and how the different aspects work together. This planning ensures a database has the necessary design for its intended use. Coders then use the schema to implement the database’s design.

Built by our long-time community expert Apoorv Vardhan, the Ably-Postgres connector can listen to changes in a Postgres table and publish realtime messages on Ably channels whenever a change occurs. The connector enables building database-driven realtime applications where long-term storage and update triggers from previously published messages are essential. One such example is an editable chat app, which we’ll talk about later in this article.

Every computer application must have a method of storing, managing and using data. This requires an application and at least one database that can communicate with each other. Managing this connection can be difficult, especially with multiple databases. Fortunately, there are platforms that can manage databases and connections applications more efficiently. Heroku offers a Postgres management system for creating, managing, and using databases.