AWS Database Blog

Category: Intermediate (200)

How Smartsheet enhances recommendations using Amazon Neptune and Knowledge Graphs

Smartsheet is a leading SaaS-based collaborative work management platform trusted by enterprises worldwide to manage projects, automate workflows, and drive collaboration at scale. In this post, we describe the Smartsheet Knowledge Graph, built in partnership between Smartsheet and AWS. The Smartsheet Knowledge Graph is a unified data model connecting people, content, and work in Smartsheet, representing how users interact with assets, content, and their collaborators.

Raising the bar on Amazon DynamoDB data modeling

In April 2025, we introduced the Amazon DynamoDB data modeling tool for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. The tool guides you through a conversation, collects your requirements, and produces a data model that includes tables, indexes, and cost considerations. In this post, we show you how we built this automated evaluation framework and how it helped us deliver reliable DynamoDB data modeling guidance at scale.

How Global Payments Inc. improved their tail latency using request hedging with Amazon DynamoDB

Amazon DynamoDB delivers consistent single-digit millisecond performance at any scale, making it ideal for mission-critical workloads. However, as with any distributed system, a small percentage of requests may experience significantly longer response times than the average. This phenomenon, known as tail latency, refers to these slower outliers that can be seen by looking at metrics such as the 99th or 99.9th percentile of response times. In this post, we explore how Global Payments Inc. (GPN) reduced their tail latency by 30% using request hedging. We review the technical details and challenges they faced, providing insights into how you can optimize your own latency-sensitive applications. In a next post we’ll share detailed implementation examples.

4.7 times better write query price-performance with AWS Graviton4 R8g instances using Amazon Neptune v1.4.5

Amazon Neptune version 1.4.5 introduces engine improvements and support for AWS Graviton-based r8g instances. In this post, we show you how these updates can improve your graph database performance and reduce costs. We walk you through the benchmark results for Gremlin and openCypher comparing Neptune v1.4.5 on r8g instances against previous versions. You’ll see performance improvements of up to 4.7x for write throughput and 3.7x for read throughput, along with the cost implications.

Enhanced throttling observability in Amazon DynamoDB

Today, we’re announcing improved observability for throttled requests in Amazon DynamoDB. These enhancements provide developers with enriched exception messages, detailed Amazon CloudWatch metrics, and a new, more cost-effective mode for CloudWatch Contributor Insights. Together, these improvements make it straightforward to understand, monitor, and optimize your DynamoDB applications’ performance. In this post, we explore how these […]

Scaling transaction peaks: Juspay’s approach using Amazon ElastiCache

Juspay powers global enterprises by streamlining payment process orchestration, enhancing security, reducing fraud, and providing seamless customer experiences. In this post, we walk you through how Juspay transformed their payment processing architecture to handle transaction peaks. Using Amazon ElastiCache and Amazon RDS for MySQL, Juspay built a system that processes 7.6 million transactions per hour during peak events, achieves sub-millisecond latency, and reduces infrastructure costs by 80% compared to their previous solution.