The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Fauna is rethinking the database (Interview)

Sep 24, 2021
Guest
Evan Weaver
In this engaging discussion, Evan Weaver, Co-founder of Fauna and former Twitter engineer, dives into the revolutionary aspects of Fauna's transactional database. He highlights the innovative Calvin algorithm's role in addressing latency and complexity in data management. The conversation also navigates the cultural implications of modern databases and the vital balance between security and accessibility in API databases. Evan shares insights into the evolving landscape of database solutions and the journey towards building a user-friendly data platform.
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
ANECDOTE

Fauna's Genesis at Twitter

  • Evan Weaver's frustration with existing databases at Twitter fueled Fauna's creation.
  • Early Rails developers struggled to find suitable data systems for Twitter's scale.
INSIGHT

Calvin Algorithm Advantages

  • Fauna uses the Calvin algorithm, a unique single-phase transactional consistency protocol.
  • This offers advantages over Spanner, like single round-trip transactions and optimal edge latency.
INSIGHT

Fauna and the CAP Theorem

  • The CAP theorem posits trade-offs between Consistency, Availability, and Partition Tolerance.
  • Fauna prioritizes Consistency over Availability in case of network partitions, aiming for a CP system.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app