Building with a Simple Key-Value Store
Simplify your stack. How to leverage a simple key-value store for session management, flags, and config.
In an era of Kubernetes, Microservices, and GraphQL, we often over-complicate our stack. We spin up a Postgres cluster, an Elasticsearch node, and a Redis cache just to store a "Todo" list.
Sometimes, all you need is a simple key-value store.
The Power of Simplicity
A Key-Value store is the simplest database primitive:
Map<String, Value>
This simplicity forces you to think about your data access patterns.
- Get User:
GET user:123 - Get User Preferences:
GET user:123:prefs
No joins. No migrations. No "N+1 query" problems.
Use Cases for Simple storage
- Shopping Carts: An anonymous user adds items. Store it as
cart:session_id -> JSON. When they checkout, move it to your "real" SQL database. - Rate Limiting:
rate_limit:ip:127.0.0.1 -> 5. Increment it. If > 10, block. - HTML Caching: Render your homepage once. Store it:
page:home -> <html>...</html>. Serve it to the next 10,000 users instantly.
Why "Simple" doesn't mean "Toylike"
"Simple" refers to the API, not the capabilities. BaseKV provides a simple API, but under the hood, it offers:
- Persistence: Secure storage on disk.
- Concurrency: Handling thousands of requests.
- Scalability: Growing with your needs.
Complexity is Technical Debt
Every new "feature" in a database (stored procedures, triggers, cascades) is logic that is hidden away from your git repository. By using a simple Key-Value store, you keep the logic in your application code, where it belongs.
Conclusion
Before you npm install pg typeorm, ask yourself: "Do I need relations, or do I just need to remember something?"
Building with a simple key-value store can cut your development time and infrastructure processing in half.
Keep it simple. Start with BaseKV.