Optimizing data writes in a distributed computing system

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions, comprising:

• instructions for receiving, at a first computing system and from a client device, a write request for writing a data item to a data storage system, wherein the data storage system includes multiple shards in which each of the shards stores a subset of data items in a distributed computing system, wherein the data item is associated with a specified shard of the multiple shards;
• instructions for selecting, by the first computing system, a first partition of multiple partitions of a first write-ahead log (WAL) in the first computing system to write the data item into, wherein the selecting is done based on a replication property specified in the write request;
• instructions for writing, by the first computing system, the data item to the first partition of the first WAL;
• instructions for replicating the data item to one or more computing systems in the distributed computing system based on a replication property associated with the first partition;
• and
• instructions for draining, in response to a drain trigger, multiple data items in the first WAL to the data storage system.

A system, comprising:

• a processor;
• a first component configured to receive a write request for writing a data item to a data storage system, wherein the data storage system includes multiple shards in which each of the shards stores a subset of data items in a distributed computing system, wherein the data item is associated with a specified shard of the multiple shards;
• a second component configured to:
• select a first partition of multiple partitions of a first write-ahead log (WAL) to write the data item into, wherein the first partition is selected based on a replication property specified in the write request, and
• write the data item to the first partition of the first WAL;
• a third component configured to replicate the data item to one or more computing systems in the distributed computing system based on a replication property associated with the first partition;
• and
• a fourth component configured to drain multiple data items in the first WAL to the data storage system.