I think you're the one who is mistaken. Amazon has multiple database products. S3 is one of them. In fact, some of the folks who developed S3 also developed BigTable for Google.
Dynamo is a new database product they have that is also a key value store.
Dynamo is not a new database product. Sure, their SaaS offering is new, but Dynamo has been used internally at Amazon since atleast 2007, when they published a whitepaper on it. Dynamo was inspired by BigTable.
Sure, when you break it down S3 is just a big key-value store, but Dynamo is a much closer comparison to BigTable.
Yes, I've read the Dynamo paper too and I know all about it's history at Amazon. I give talks on this subject all the time.
My point was that you're being short sighted by taking away the credibility of the author for calling S3 a database, which many people do, and especially did in 2010.
Hey, Jeremy, you used to use Cassandra at reddit, no? I seem to remember it caused you many problems, is that the case? Have you used it/would you recommend it nowadays?
Maybe I should start a StackOverflow thread, or make a mini-site where people can opine about various technology products. I find myself looking for opinions every time I'm thinking of using a new piece of software for my business.
Dynamo is a new database product they have that is also a key value store.