Big Peer
The Big Peer refers to the trusted cloud deployment of the Ditto sync engine and its associated services that facilitate advanced platform capabilities.
This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the Big Peer; the system component that, although functionally equivalent to a traditional cloud database, operates as a trusted peer in the distributed peer-to-peer network.
When the Big Peer syncs with Small Peers, it is viewed as if it is just another peer in the mesh network. However, unlike Small Peers, the Big Peer is capable of storing large amounts of data:
- The Big Peer is cloud-ready, multi-tenant, highly available, fault-tolerant, offers causally consistent transactions, and works seamlessly with Small Peer end-user environments, such as an iPhone.
- As data demands grow, you can scale your app resources both horizontally and vertically by splitting them across multiple virtual or physical nodes.
The following table provides an overview of the critical services that the Big Peer provides to the Ditto cluster:
Service | Description |
|---|---|
Sync engine and resources | A powerful and feature-rich system capable of storing and orchestrating very large amounts of data. (Big Peer Architecture) |
Authentication service | Enables connected Small Peers to obtain valid certificates to participate in the mesh and replicate data they have permissions for. (Security) |
HTTP API | A stateless API you can use to perform various one-time operations on the Big Peer for programmatic data ingress, reading, and manipulation. (HTTP API) |
Apache Kafka¹ | A premium option for Big Peer streaming between Ditto and any Kafka-backed external systems and services you choose.(Change Data Capture) |
WebHooks¹ | Native Big Peer data egress functionality that you can use to implement Big Peer data egress with your app or any external systems or services that you choose. To learn more, contact Ditto. |
¹An implementation of change data capture (CDC) for watching and, as relevant data changes occur, asynchronously recording and syncing with external databases and business intelligence tools for robust analysis. For more information, see Change Data Capture.