

Scalable Web Architectures and Application State - Maro
http://bytepawn.com/2009/06/17/scalable-web-architectures-and-application-state/

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etherealG
I'm not too sure how in this pattern he suggests someone would replace mysql
with a distributed key value store? how would that handle foreign keys?

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mbrubeck
Volumes have been written about that question; you can find plenty on this
very site, e.g.: <http://searchyc.com/nosql>

Without rehashing all that, I'll just assure you from my own experience using
distributed key/value stores in production as an Amazon.com engineer, that the
tradeoff (less expressive data storage engine but simpler
scaling/operations/reliability) is often worth it. And many applications are
actually simpler to express in a non-relational model.

(And before anyone asks: Yes, for other applications a relational database is
a better solution, despite the pain of scaling it and operating it reliably.
And I've worked on production systems that used both DHTs and SQL.)

