AdaptiveBlue @
AWS NYC Meetup
June 4, 2009
Mark Tabry, Software Engineer
http://getglue.com

Agenda
 About AdaptiveBlue
 Glue: The Network of People and Things
 Glue: Building on Amazon Web Services
 Glue: Semantic Technology Stack

About AdaptiveBlue
 Founded in 2006, based in New York
 Focuses on enhancing browsing experience
 Launched BlueOrganizer and Glue add-ons for
Firefox and SmartLinks Widgets for blogs

Get Glue. The Network That
Sticks With You.
http://getglue.com

What is Glue?
Glue is a contextual network that uses
semantic technology to automatically
connect people around everyday things -
books, music, movies, stars, artists,
stocks, wine, restaurants and more.

1. Contextual: Glue is distributed and appears
when it makes sense on popular sites.
2. Automatic: Users participate in Glue just by
browsing their favorite sites.
3. Simple: Glue removes the friction involved
in networking - the network comes to you.

Glue Demo

Glue:
Building on Amazon
Web Services

AWS-based Architecture
Client Layer
Browser Add-Ons Widgets iPhones Facebook Apps API Clients
Load Balancer Layer
Round Robin DNS
Load Balancer 1 Load Balancer 2
Web Service Layer
Host 1 (EC2) Host N (EC2)
Glue Web Service Glue Web Service
...
Batch Services Batch Services
Database Layer
Amazon S3 Rackspace MySQL
Amazon SimpleDB
Object Database/ User accounts
Interactions between
People Profiles Analytics
People and Things

AdaptiveBlue AWS Stack
Relating People and Things ( SimpleDB )
Records of people’s interactions around things are stored
in SimpleDB Domains using duplication for fast access.
Storing Object Meta Data ( S3 )
XML representation of millions of books, music,
movies, etc. is stored using Amazon S3
Transactional and Batch Support ( EC2 )
Web Service Requests and batches are
distributed through EC2 instances.

Amazon SimpleDB in a Nutshell
Simple DB Domain
Idea:
Record 1
Key1 Attributes: A1,A2… Create flat database with
auto-indexed tables.
…
Record N Main Features:
Key2 Attributes: A1,A2…
 Each attribute is indexed.
 Record structure is flexible.
Get record  Basic operators in queries
Put record Query records  Supports sorting.
Client

How Glue uses SimpleDB
Interaction Record
Key1 Attributes: A1,A2…
Object Domains People Domains
OD1 OD2 … ODN PD1 PD2 … PDN
 Each record is duplicated into Object and Person Domain
 The Key is a combination of USER_ID and OBJECT_KEY
 Djb2hash is used to calculate the domain for each record
Records for each USER and each OBJECT inside the same domain.

Amazon S3 in a Nutshell
Amazon S3 Idea:
Bucket 1 Bucket N Put/Get objects into buckets
… based on unique keys.
Put object Get object Main Features:
 Public/Private access.
 Support for large objects.
Client

How Glue Uses S3
Object Bucket People Bucket
XML-files with object information XML-files with user and friends info
 XML is serialized as string and written to S3
 Each file has a unique key: OBJECT_ID or USER_ID/profile, etc.

Amazon EC2 in the Nutshell
Usage:
 Create Machine Image
 Deploy the image to S3
 Start 1 or more instances
 Use it as regular machine(s)
Main Options:
Machine  Dynamic/Static IPS
Image  Choose cores
(OS + Apps)  Choose locations
 Persistence via EBS

How Glue uses EC2
Round Robin DNS
Load Balancer 1 Load Balancer 2
Host 1 (EC2/Rackspace) Host N (EC2/Rackspace)
Glue Web Service Glue Web Service
...
Batch Services Batch Services
 Web Service processes transactional requests
 Batch Services are time-based & run on sets of USERS and OBJECTS
The system scales by equally partitioning Data and Requests

http://getglue.com
http://twitter/marktabry
Mark.Tabry@gmail.com