What is a Website Database?
A website database is software that stores and updates data collected from a website. You can create a web application that communicates with the database to give visitors a dynamic and personalized website experience. For example, you can set up a login system and allow users to create profiles, establish an e-commerce experience, or enable bookings.
Setting up and managing a website database was traditionally a complicated and time-consuming process, requiring specialized knowledge. Modern cloud-based website databases can be utilized directly in code, eliminating the need to manage infrastructure.
Which websites require a website database?
To understand which websites need a website database, it’s helpful to know the difference between static and dynamic websites.
Static websites
A static website is any webpage that delivers exactly the same information to every single visitor. Static websites deliver unchanging information, like a company portfolio, a documentation page, or a landing page. These informational websites are not particularly complex and don’t require site visitor information. Every site visitor sees the same web page.
Developers code static websites in HTML and will very rarely change them. They may not need to connect and pull information from a website database.
Dynamic websites
A dynamic website is a more complex site that allows users to interact with it to access various pages and information types. For example, a user could log in to their account, submit a form, or interact with the website to search through different products. Each one of these actions requires the website to interact with its own database to deliver information and update the webpage in real-time.
Dynamic websites all utilize website databases, as the information they display is not fixed like it is with static websites. A database-driven website will change depending on what information a user clicks on.
How does a website database work?
A website database serves as a central hub that stores all the data a dynamic website requires. Whenever a user makes a request, it moves through a three-layer pathway as follows.
User requests on the frontend
A user clicks a form or button on a dynamic website, generating a user request. This request originates from the client’s device, like the user interface on a mobile phone browser or an internet browser on a computer. This request then passes to the application tier, also known as the backend.
Application receives the request
The application layer contains the code and processing logic. It receives a user input, interacts with it using business logic, and then sends the query to the database. The code is deployed on a web server and an application server, which can work together to understand user requests and formulate them into queries for the website database.
Request arrives at the website database
After passing through the backend, the user request is then forwarded to the website database. Depending on the specific request, the database retrieves data that the user has requested. Developers separate the database from the backend because this allows them to easily update or change database data without interfering with the server-side structure.
The online database then sends the data back to the application layer, which forwards it to display on the user’s device frontend. For frequently referenced data, the server-side may cache information to help expedite data retrieval. It does not have to connect with the database to deliver existing data that is already cached.
What are some examples of website databases?
Website databases can be grouped into two broad categories, relational and non-relational databases.
Relational databases
Relational databases use columns and rows to organize their data into a structured format. Developers use Structured Query Language (SQL) to interact with data in this form of database. Relational databases are ideal for any applications that require complex SQL queries or would benefit from being highly structured and need data consistency.
Here are some examples of relational database management systems.
Amazon Aurora
Amazon Aurora is a high-performance relational database management system that offers compatibility with PostgreSQL and MySQL. Aurora offers up to 99.999% multi-region availability, enabling businesses worldwide to scale their website databases in the cloud. Aurora offers 5x the throughput of MySQL and 3x that of PostgreSQL, making it a fantastic option for businesses looking to migrate for better availability and performance.
MySQL
MySQL is another useful RDBMS option. Businesses can access a MySQL database for free, making it a practical option for companies that only need a straightforward website database. MySQL is an open-source software package.
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) that has been in use for over 35 years and offers advanced features compared to MySQL. PostgreSQL contains additional features that allow developers to interact with data in alternative ways, like triggers, stored procedures, and by using custom data types. You can also download many extensions for PostgreSQL to improve its functionality.
MariaDB
MariaDB is another popular relational database management system that originally forked from MySQL. Any applications that currently run on MySQL will typically work on MariaDB due to their same origins. MariaDB focuses on providing more scalability than MySQL.
Non-relational (NoSQL databases)
Non-relational (NoSQL) databases enable developers to store data in various formats, such as documents, objects, and key-value pairs. Instead of the highly structured format of data in a relational database, non-relational databases are well-suited for alternative data structures, such as unstructured data storage.
Here are some non-relational database management systems.
MongoDB
MongoDB is a non-relational database that stores data using JSON-like documents, making it a suitable storage format for unstructured and semi-structured data. MongoDB offers high availability and can effectively scale horizontally, which has contributed to its widespread adoption.
Amazon DocumentDB offers full MongoDB compatibility, enabling businesses that need to scale, access enterprise resources, and enhance productivity while reducing costs to optimize their MongoDB usage.
Amazon Neptune
Amazon Neptune is a high-performance serverless graph database that allows businesses to store and analyze large amounts of graph data with ease. Companies can utilize Amazon Neptune for its superior graph storage, offering enhanced security, continuous backups, low-latency reads and writes, and direct integration with other AWS services.
Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon DynamoDB is a serverless, non-relational, fully managed data management system that can scale to deliver high performance at any level. Developers utilize DynamoDB to access nearly unlimited storage and throughput, making it a powerful NoSQL option for web development and beyond.
How can AWS support your website database requirements?
Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a collection of managed services that makes it simple to set up, operate, and scale a relational website database in the cloud.
Cloud website databases offer many benefits, such as cost efficiency, performance, and scale. Amazon RDS integrates Amazon Aurora, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB as engines, including others.
AWS also offers several NoSQL database services to meet all your NoSQL requirements as outlined above.
Get started with website databases on AWS by creating a free account today.