What’s the cheapest data storage? A file. Nothing beats a simple file.
When you need to save data coming from an API, the minute you need to open a connection and stream the data to the database, you are consuming network bytes, CPU cycles, and creating unnecessary overhead.
Let’s suppose that you need to store a CSV file, with a row size of 84 bytes. If you use AWS S3 Glacier, 1.25 trillion of rows (100TB of space, the equivalent to 17,000 HD movies) will cost you $409.6 per month.
If you need more than storing data, the following questions will guide you to choose the most cost-effective database solution:
- How often do you need to write new data?
- How often do you need access to the data?
- How much data do you need to pull each time?
- How fast do you need a response?
- How complex are the queries?
Once you have clear answers, you can choose a plethora of options from AWS RDS, all the way to Kinesis.
It’s not how much data you are storing what it cost. It is how updated you need it, how fast you need it, and how much do you need.
