DynamoDB supports two types of secondary indexes: Local secondary index --an index that has the same hash key as the table, but a different range key. A local secondary index is "local" in the sense that every partition of a local secondary index is scoped to a table partition that has the same hash key. Global secondary index --an index with a hash and range key that can be different from those on the table. A global secondary index is considered "global" because queries on the index can span all of the data in a table, across all partitions. Reference: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/SecondaryIndexes.html