Write-heavy database workloads bring a distinctly different set of challenges than read-heavy ones. For example:
- Scaling writes can be costly, especially if you pay per operation, and writes are 5X more costly than reads
- Locking can add delays and reduce throughput
- I/O bottlenecks can lead to write amplification and complicate crash recovery
- Database backpressure can throttle the incoming load
While cost matters quite a lot, in many cases, it’s not a topic we want to cover here. Rather, let’s focus on the performance-related complexities that teams commonly face and discuss your options for tackling them.