A fully managed document database service from AWS that is compatible with MongoDB workloads. Like a flexible filing system where each document can have its own unique structure, DocumentDB stores data as JSON-like documents rather than rigid rows and columns. It implements the Apache 2.0 open-source MongoDB 5.0 API, so existing MongoDB applications can connect with minimal code changes. DocumentDB separates compute and storage, allowing them to scale independently, and provides built-in security with encryption, VPC isolation, and fine-grained access control.
A content management company migrates their MongoDB-based platform to Amazon DocumentDB to reduce operational overhead. Their application, which stores articles, user profiles, and media metadata as flexible JSON documents, connects to DocumentDB with just a connection string change. They immediately benefit from automatic storage scaling (no more midnight disk-full emergencies), continuous backups with point-in-time recovery, and read replicas that handle their traffic spikes during breaking news events.