Amazon patents database method to keep current and past data in one table
The filing describes a system that copies data from a main transaction database to an analysis database in near real-time. It uses extra columns to mark which rows are currently active and which are historical versions, allowing both to exist in the same table without restarting the system.
In the filing’s own words
Systems and methods for managing a representation of a transactional table of a transactional database in an analytical database in near real-time are disclosed. A historical mode enables the analytical database to maintain both a current representation of the transactional table, but also one or more historical representations. The table representation maintained by the analytical database can enter and exit the historical mode without a need for re-start. For example, additional columns specifying whether a given row is active and what transaction numbers it was active for, are added to allow the historical representations to be included in the same table with the current representation.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A system, comprising: one or more computing devices configured to implement a transactional database, wherein the one or more computing devices are configured to: maintain a table comprising data items; and write transactional changes made to the table to a change-data-capture log; one or more compute nodes organized into a node cluster and configured to implement an analytical database, wherein the one or more compute nodes of the node cluster are configured to: maintain a current representation of at least one portion of the table, wherein to maintain the current representation of at least one portion of the table comprises applying respective ones of the transactional changes of the change-data-capture log, received at the analytical database, to update the current representation of the at least one portion of the table; and maintain one or more historical representations of the at least one portion of the table, wherein to maintain the one or more historical representations of the at least one portion of the table comprises retaining versions of rows prior to applying the respective ones of the transactional changes, wherein the versions retained prior to applying the respective ones of the transactional changes are marked as inactive rows of the at least one portion of the table maintained at the analytical database.
Facts
- Company
- Amazon (Amazon Technologies, Inc.)
- Official title
- Maintaining a current and a historical representation of a transactional database at an analytical database
- Patent number
- US12743413B1
- Application number
- 18896614
- Filed
- Sep 25, 2024
- Granted
- Sep 22, 2026
- Inventors
- 5
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06F 16/2379 Physics & computingG06F 16/2358 Physics & computingMore from Amazon in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.