[cerebrum]

Ok, I want a 2 pronged approach:

1) A NoSQL DB for the main data providing replication and scalability(e.g. Cassandra or DynamoDB).

2) Another DB for quick access and transient Data where replication is not so important, e.g. storing the session cookie. Relational vs Non-relational would not be an issue since I'm only storing very little data here and want fast access and minimize costs(in DynamoDB you still have to pay per operation). Therefore I'm looking for some simple solution like ElastiCache.

[brianwawok]

How much data are you going to have, and of what format? Do you actually need NoSQL here?

[cerebrum]

I'm doing a social networking site, so I don't know how much data I will end up with. My reasoning was as follows:

1) The data model is rather simple, basically one table with the user data(name, location, age, etc...) and some images. So it shouldn't be too difficult to do this with NoSql as opposed to SQL. Yes, simpler with SQL but not significantly so.

2) If I ever need to scale, I'd rather make the right choice from the beginning(NoSQL) so as not to need a migration later.

3) In any case NoSQL would be a learning experience for me, so another plus.

If there is a mistake in my reasoning I would be grateful for any one pointing it out.