A revolutionary shift is happening in the world of Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) databases. Traditional architectures are being reimagined with a cloud-native approach that leverages Amazon S3 as the foundation for durable storage, combined with sophisticated caching layers using NVMe SSDs and memory. This architectural pattern isn’t just a minor optimization—it’s potentially the future of database design.

Why This Architecture Matters

The combination of S3 for durability and high-performance NVMe drives for caching represents a perfect marriage of reliability and speed. This approach offers several compelling advantages:

1. Cost Efficiency: S3’s pay-for-what-you-use model eliminates the need for overprovisioning storage
2. Unlimited Durability: S3’s eleven 9’s of durability far exceeds traditional storage solutions
3. Separation of Concerns: Decoupling storage from compute enables independent scaling
4. Performance: NVMe caching layers provide the low latency needed for OLTP workloads

Real-World Implementations

This architectural pattern isn’t just theoretical—several innovative database projects are already leading the charge:

WeSQL

WeSQL has built their entire architecture around S3, implementing a sophisticated persistent cache layer with NVMe drives. Their approach experiments with how modern databases can achieve both high performance and cost efficiency through intelligent caching strategies.

MotherDuck & SlateDB

These projects showcase how differential storage approaches can be implemented effectively with S3, particularly for analytical workloads that require both performance and cost-effectiveness.

TiDB Serverless

Pingcap is adopting a S3 durable storage as some of the replicaset members for their cloud offering as shared in their public blog posts.

ClickHouse

Even established players like ClickHouse are adapting, offering robust S3 integration options that demonstrate the pattern’s growing adoption.

The Technical Challenges Ahead

While the benefits are clear, implementing this architecture isn’t without its challenges. The key technical considerations include:

1. Cache Consistency: Maintaining consistency between NVMe caches and S3 storage
2. Failure Recovery: Handling EC2 instance failures without data loss through replication and consensus algorithms
3. Performance Tuning: Balancing cache sizes against S3 access patterns
4. Cost Optimization: Finding the sweet spot between cache size, S3 access frequency, and overall performance

Looking Forward

As we move into 2024, I expect this architectural pattern to gain significant traction. The combination of unlimited durability from S3 with the performance of NVMe caching layers is too compelling to ignore.

The future of OLTP databases might not just be cloud-native—it might be S3-native.

What are your thoughts on this architectural trend? Have you experimented with S3-backed databases in your organization? Share your experiences in the comments below.