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Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB)
Cloud Provider: AWS
What is Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB)
Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB) is a fully managed ledger database that provides a transparent, immutable, and cryptographically verifiable transaction log âowned by a central trusted authority.
Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB) is a fully managed ledger database provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that offers a transparent, immutable, and cryptographically verifiable transaction log, owned by a central trusted authority.
The purpose of Amazon QLDB is to provide customers with the ability to track all application data changes over time in a secure and easy-to-use manner. It delivers the functionalities of a ledger technology, which enables users to maintain an accurate and complete record of their data changes without the need for the complexity that distributed blockchain networks typically involve. The immutable nature of Amazon QLDB means that once data is written to the ledger, it cannot be altered or deleted. This feature is paramount for use cases where maintaining an auditable and indisputable history of transactions or records is crucial, such as financial transactions, supply chain tracking, legal documents, and regulatory compliance records.
Amazon QLDB uses an append-only transactional data model, ensuring that each transaction is recorded sequentially and securely. One of the unique aspects of Amazon QLDB is its use of a cryptographic digest, which serves as a secure output of the data's history. This digest acts like a fingerprint for the ledger's entire history, providing users with the ability to look back and validate the integrity of their data changes at any given point in time. If the historical data was altered in any way, the cryptographic digest would not match, signaling that the integrity has been compromised.
Amazon QLDB is designed to offer high performance and scalability. It processes transactions quickly and ensures that users have the ability to scale up to handle the demands of enterprise-level applications without degradation in performance. The database is serverless, meaning there is no need to manage infrastructure, and users only pay for what they use. It simplifies the set-up process, management, and operation of a ledger-like database and removes the need for the involved maintenance that comes with self-managed databases or ledgers.
Moreover, Amazon QLDB is equipped with a rich set of APIs enabling seamless integration with other AWS services and programming languages. The QLDB query language is SQL-like, allowing those familiar with SQL to transition smoothly without the steep learning curve that is often associated with new technologies. Customers of Amazon QLDB can benefit significantly from its non-repudiable and verifiable history of data changes, high-performance data processing, and the robust infrastructure offered by AWS.
The service is built for users who need to keep a complete and verifiable history of data changes in their applications but do not require the decentralized trust offered by blockchain networks. By leveraging the centralized trust model and the strong immutability and integrity checks of Amazon QLDB, businesses can operate more transparently and efficiently, meeting their regulatory and compliance requirements while also fostering trust in their data management practices.
Key Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB) Features
Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) provides an immutable, cryptographically verifiable ledger with serverless scalability, ACID transactions, and full data transparency using PartiQL, also offering easy integration with Managed Blockchain services.
Amazon QLDB is an append-only ledger database that allows you to record a complete and verifiable history of all transactions. Its immutability ensures no record can be altered or deleted after itâs committed.
QLDB is serverless, eliminating the need for provisioning or managing servers. It automatically scales to support the demands of your applications.
The ledger's cryptographic hash function creates a secure output (digest) of your dataâs complete change history, enabling you to independently verify the integrity of the data.
With QLDB, you have full visibility into the entire change history of your data with a straightforward querying language (PartiQL), thus enhancing the transparency of your ledger.
Amazon QLDB supports ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) transactions, ensuring that all your transactions are processed reliably.
Amazon QLDB works well alongside Amazon Managed Blockchain for use cases that require an immutable ledger with the decentralization of blockchain.
Getting started with QLDB is quick and simple with no upfront cost or commitments. You can create and configure your ledger in a few clicks.
QLDB supports PartiQL, a SQL-compatible querying language, enabling you to use familiar syntax to manipulate your ledger data.
Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB) Use Cases
Amazon QLDB is used for tracking financial transactions, ensuring supply chain traceability, managing HR and credentials, maintaining legal document integrity, and providing a secure ledger in the gaming industry.
Amazon QLDB provides a secure and transparent ledger for tracking financial transactions, ensuring data integrity with an immutable and cryptographically verifiable transaction log. Financial institutions can use QLDB to provide a single source of truth for trades, loans, and audits, reducing fraud and making compliance easier.
Businesses can use Amazon QLDB to trace the provenance and status of products in a supply chain. By recording each step of the product journey on the ledger, companies can verify the authenticity of products, ensure compliance with regulations, and quickly trace any issues back to their source.
QLDB can manage employee records and credentials securely, offering a tamper-proof system for storing personal data, employment histories, and professional certifications. This enables easy verification of credentials and streamlines the onboarding process.
For legal and compliance use cases, Amazon QLDB can maintain an accurate and immutable history of legal documents, changes, and access. This can be particularly useful in contract management, where every modification needs to be tracked and verified.
In online gaming, Amazon QLDB can track in-game asset ownership or player transactions to prevent fraud and cheating. The immutable ledger ensures that all transactions are fair and transparent, enhancing the overall trust in the gaming ecosystem.
Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB) pricing models
Amazon QLDB pricing models include charges for read and write operations, monthly data storage, and optional data export to Amazon S3.