Pro's of databases like BigTable, SimpleDB

Question

New school datastore paradigms like Google BigTable and Amazon SimpleDB are specifically designed for scalability, among other things. Basically, disallowing joins and denor

Answer 1

If you are talking about data that is virtually read-only, the rules change. Denormalisation is hardest in situations where data changes because the work required is increased and there are more problems with locking. If the data barely changes then denormalisation is not so much of a problem.