Database School

Sugu Sougoumarane, co-creator of Vitess and co-founder of PlanetScale, discusses his journey from scaling YouTube's database to his latest project, Multigres, aimed at sharding in Postgres. He shares insights on intelligent query parsing, preventing outages, and the evolution of Vitess. Sugu reflects on personal growth during his sabbatical and the significance of community in developing user-friendly database solutions. With a focus on small team efficiency, he explores how they tackle challenges in distributed systems and the ambitions for enhancing compatibility and performance.

In this episode, I chat with Richard Crowley from PlanetScale about their new offering: PlanetScale Metal.We dive deep into the performance and reliability trade-offs of EBS vs. locally attached NVMe storage,and how Metal delivers game-changing speed for MySQL workloads.Links:Database School: https://databaseschool.comPlanetScale: https://planetscale.comPlanetScale Metal: https://planetscale.com/blog/announcing-metalFollow Richard:Twitter: https://twitter.com/rcrowleyWebsite: https://rcrowley.orgFollow Aaron:Twitter: https://twitter.com/aarondfrancisLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: https://aaronfrancis.com — find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Intro: What is PlanetScale Metal?00:39 - Meet Richard Crowley01:33 - What is Vitess and how does it work?03:00 - Where PlanetScale fits into the picture09:03 - Why EBS is the default and its trade-offs13:03 - How PlanetScale handles durability without EBS16:03 - The engineering work behind PlanetScale Metal22:00 - Deep dive into backups, restores, and availability math25:03 - How PlanetScale replaces instances safely27:11 - Performance gains with Metal: Latency and IOPS explained32:03 - Database workloads that truly benefit from Metal39:10 - The myth of the infinite cloud41:08 - How PlanetScale plans for capacity43:02 - Multi-tenant vs. PlanetScale Managed44:02 - Who should use Metal and when?46:05 - Pricing trade-offs and when Metal becomes cheaper48:27 - Scaling vertically vs. sharding49:57 - What’s next for PlanetScale Metal?53:32 - Where to learn more

Johannes Schickling, the original founder of Prisma and creator of LiveStore, dives into the innovative world of local-first applications. He discusses the significance of event sourcing and how it simplifies state management, particularly in user-centric apps. Schickling also highlights the growing popularity of local-first approaches and their impact on data ownership. Furthermore, he shares insights on syncing data efficiently using SQLite and explores the challenges of distributed systems. Tune in for a fascinating look at the future of app development!

Josh Howard, Senior Engineering Manager at Cloudflare, dives into the innovative world of Durable Objects and D1 products. He discusses how Cloudflare's unique approach to stateful serverless infrastructure revolutionizes cloud computing. Explore the intricacies of V8 isolates, routing strategies, and the tradeoffs between stateless and durable models. Learn about the performance of local storage writes, storage replication, and the fascinating relationship between Durable Objects and modern game applications. Discover how these advancements enhance developer experiences!

Heikki Linnakangas, co-founder of Neon and a PostgreSQL expert since 2003, shares insights from his extensive journey in the Postgres community. He discusses the evolution of Postgres governance and the importance of community contributions. The conversation dives into the architecture of Neon, emphasizing serverless databases and latency improvements. Heikki also explores the exciting future of multi-threaded Postgres, addressing its challenges and potential impact on cloud services. Tune in for a wealth of technological insights and personal anecdotes!

Carl Sverre, the creator of SQLSync and Graft, delves into the world of edge-native, partially replicated databases. He argues that syncing everything isn’t efficient and unveils Graft's innovative approach to optimize data transfer. The discussion covers the challenges of traditional database synchronization, the groundbreaking features of SQL Sync, and how Graft's architecture scales effectively. Full of insights on transactional guarantees and caching performance, this conversation highlights the future of serverless database replicas and efficient data retrieval.

Prisma started as a GraphQL backend and pivoted into one of the most widely used ORMs in the world. Now, they’ve launched Prisma Postgres, and CEO Søren Bramer Schmidt is here to break down the journey, the challenges, and the massive technical innovations behind it—including bare-metal servers, Firecracker microVMs, and unikernels. If you care about databases, performance, or scaling, this one’s for you.Want to learn more Postgres? Check out my Postgres course: https://masteringpostgres.com.Follow Søren:Twitter: https://twitter.com/sorenbsGitHub: https://github.com/prisma/prismaPrisma Postgres: https://www.prisma.io/postgresFollow Aaron:Twitter:  https://twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: https://aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Database school on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI72dgeNJtzqElnNB6sQoAn2R-F3Vqm15Database school audio only: https://databaseschool.transistor.fm Chapters:00:00 - Introduction01:15 - The Origins of Prisma: From GraphQL to ORM02:55 - Why Firebase & Parse Inspired Prisma04:04 - The Pivot: From GraphQL to Prisma ORM06:00 - Why They Abandoned Backend-as-a-Service08:07 - The Open Source Business Model Debate10:15 - The Challenges of Monetizing an ORM12:42 - Building Prisma Accelerate & Pulse14:55 - How Prisma Accelerate Optimizes Database Access17:00 - Real-Time Database Updates with Prisma Pulse20:03 - How Prisma Pulse Handles Change Data Capture (CDC)23:15 - Users Wanted a Hosted Database (Even When Prisma Didn’t)25:40 - Why Prisma Finally Launched Prisma Postgres27:32 - Unikernels, Firecracker MicroVMs & Running Millions of Databases31:10 - Bare Metal Servers vs. AWS: The Controversial Choice34:40 - How Prisma Routes Queries for Low Latency38:02 - Scaling, Cost Efficiency & Performance Benefits42:10 - The Prisma Postgres Roadmap & Future Features45:30 - Why Prisma is Competing with AWS & The Big Cloud Players48:05 - Final Thoughts & Where to Learn More

Mike Buckbee, co-founder of Wafris and an expert in cybersecurity, discusses his transition from Redis to SQLite for web application firewalls. He shares challenges faced in managing security and architecture, emphasizing the enhanced performance and usability gained through SQLite. The conversation highlights SQL's advantages over JSON, addressing operational challenges and how Wafris effectively handles IP data. Buckbee also reflects on Wafris' dual architecture, operational efficiencies, and the importance of community engagement in cybersecurity.

Jesse Hanley, founder of Bento, shares insights from running a lean email service provider in Japan. He discusses the innovative use of Discord for customer support, emphasizing its efficiency and community-driven feedback. Jesse dives into the challenges of scaling infrastructure, managing databases, and maintaining calm in a competitive landscape. He also explores the journey of bootstrapping Bento and highlights the importance of personal relationships in growing a business. A must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs!

Monica Sarbu, founder of Xata.io, and Tudor Golubenco, the CTO, share their journey from Elastic to launching Xata, a Postgres database platform. They discuss the challenges of schema management and the innovations behind their free tier, which supports both developers and nonprofits. The duo also explores how user-friendly database solutions can empower underrepresented groups in tech and the significance of their open-source roots in shaping Xata's mission.