March 2021 Summaries

CockroachDB migrated from Go Dep to Go Modules due to the latter's widespread availability since Go 1.11 and its recommendation by dependent libraries. However, the migration process was not straightforward as it involved issues such as being unable to import vendored protobuf files, recognizing implicit upgrades and downgrades, and encountering errors writing go.mod. The team followed a guide from the "Migrating to Go Modules" page but had to adapt their approach for specific use cases like using protobufs and C files defined in Go modules. They also faced challenges with reproducible builds and the Go module cache, which they resolved by maintaining a separate git repo for vendors. Overall, despite some complications, the team found that Go Modules usage was smoother than using dep ensure and provided more intuitive management of modules.

Fundamentals of CockroachDB for Java Developers is a new course available on Cockroach University. This course targets Java application developers who want to enhance their knowledge with CockroachDB and build scalable, resilient applications and services. Similar to the Python course, participants will develop a full-stack ride sharing application using Spring Boot with Spring Data JPA. The course includes videos, exercises, and a final exam. It is recommended for developers who have experience with Java and application development. Upon completion of the course, participants receive a Certificate of Completion and are entered into a raffle to win an iPad Air.

Cockroach Labs' Engineering internship program is designed to provide real-world experience for up-and-coming developers. The company assigns interns meaningful work that contributes to the development of their products, CockroachDB and CockroachDB Dedicated. Throughout the internship, interns are supported by a "Roachmate" who helps them transition into the company culture and navigate their projects. Feedback is encouraged at all stages of the internship, with midpoint check-ins and end-of-internship syncs to ensure continuous improvement. The program concludes with a final presentation where interns showcase their work and experiences during their time at Cockroach Labs.

Financial services organizations are increasingly looking to the cloud for infrastructure that supports real-time processing of transactions and ensures compliance with local data protection and privacy laws. Low latency is crucial in financial services, especially for high-frequency trading applications. Multi-region deployments and geo-partitioning can help keep data closer to users, improving performance and ensuring regulatory compliance. CockroachDB from Cockroach Labs offers geo-partitioning capabilities that enable developers at banks and financial services organizations to designate where data should be stored at the database, table, and row-level, helping deliver applications with low latency while staying compliant with data protection and privacy regulations.

Aurora Payments has built a payment acquiring solution using CockroachDB on Kubernetes. The company aims to ensure that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) receive payments quickly and with low fees by integrating with their point of sale technology and business management software. They chose CockroachDB for its always-on, always-available feature, strong consistency, Kubernetes compatibility, and horizontal scaling capabilities. The company's architecture includes front-end React, back-end .Net Core C#, and a database using CockroachDB (with some workloads still migrating from Postgres). By choosing CockroachDB, Aurora Payments has removed the database as a bottleneck for performance or availability, giving them a competitive advantage in the financial services industry.

Cockroach Labs, a SaaS startup, emphasizes creating an inclusive environment for its employees. The company has established the CREWS program (Cockroach Employees Who Support), which are employee-run groups designed to create an inclusive atmosphere and help employees connect with their peers on a deeper level. These groups include Women of Cockroach Labs, Roacher Pride, POC-at-CRL, and Infinite Colors. The program has expanded to include executive sponsorship and support for group initiatives, as well as being introduced during the onboarding process for new employees. Employees are encouraged to start their own CREWS groups if they feel underrepresented in existing ones.

mntr.tech is a mentorship app developed by students from Lassonde School of Engineering at York University. The app uses an advanced matching algorithm to connect mentors and mentees, allowing both parties to have the final say in the match. It was built with Vue.js, Firebase, and CockroachDB Dedicated. The team chose these technologies for their ease of use and integration capabilities. They also shared tips for first-time SQL users and advice on preparing for hackathons.

CockroachDB is an open-source project that has grown significantly since its inception seven years ago. The creators of the project, Spencer Kimball, Ben Darnell, and Peter Mattis, founded a for-profit company called Cockroach Labs to support the development of the database. They sponsor several maintainers who contribute to the growth and evolution of CockroachDB. These maintainers include Daniele Varrazzo, Tom Payne, Dominik Honnef, Tim Graham, Keith Doggett, and Jack Christensen. Their work helps ensure compatibility with other projects and contributes to the overall success of CockroachDB. The company encourages community involvement and collaboration through its contributing guide.

Amazon Aurora is a cloud-based relational database engine that combines the speed and reliability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases. However, it may not be considered as a truly "global" database due to its limitations in global availability, performance, and consistency. Amazon Aurora's architecture is decades old and was not designed to support scalable inter-regional operation. It relies on a single write node for all global writes and can only extend read replicas to one other region. Additionally, it does not offer serializable isolation, low latency, and non-zero RTO. A true global database should focus on these two challenges: everything will fail, and the speed of light is constrained. CockroachDB was conceived as a global database from the beginning and has a sharp focus on these issues.

The article discusses the transition from batch to streaming data for real-time monitoring using Snowflake, Looker, and CockroachDB. It explains how Cockroach Labs uses telemetry data collected internally on product usage to inform decisions about features and services. The company initially used weekly cron jobs and batch updates but switched to changefeeds for faster, more reliable data updates. Changefeeds watch a table or set of tables, pick up any changes to the underlying data, and emit those changes via a changefeed. This approach has added robustness and reliability to their process, allowing them to go from weekly to daily or near real-time metrics. The journey of their data involves using an AWS S3 bucket as a general-purpose data dump, loading the data into Snowflake using Snowpipe, and finally reading it in Looker for aggregation and displaying in dashboards.

Bitski, a San Francisco-based startup company, has built an NFT marketplace that processes blockchain transactions faster than its competitors. The platform addresses the challenges of security and speed in buying and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by emphasizing Swiss bank-level security and an innovative approach to processing blockchain transactions. Bitski's NFT Marketplace is designed as a "Shopify for NFTs," allowing users to create, sell, and transfer NFTs easily. The marketplace built on CockroachDB has proven to be significantly faster than other existing platforms.

Five career tips from women excelling in B2B tech sales at Cockroach Labs include making sure one's voice is heard, leveraging experience from other fields with the help of a mentor, balancing family and work life, being selective during interviews by asking probing questions, and supporting other women as they grow in their careers. These tips were shared by Jen Murphy, Head of Channel Sales, and Account Executives Charlotte Mastantuono, Mikael Austin, and Carolyn Parrish.

Levven, a smart home controls manufacturer, has implemented CockroachDB Dedicated to ensure their products remain functional even when the internet goes down. The company aims to make homes more affordable by reducing build costs and incorporating eco-friendly features. By utilizing CockroachDB's managed service offering, Levven can maintain low operational overhead while providing highly available smart home controls. Their architecture includes a 900 MHz RF network for communication between light switches, load controllers, and the gateway, ensuring that their products continue to function even during internet outages.

Cockroach Labs is hiring people to work with them from Sydney, Australia. The company's mission is to provide a powerful database that grows with the success of its clients and abstracts complex issues related to scaling databases. Working at Cockroach Labs offers opportunities to contribute to pioneering tech solutions in the field of databases while being part of an open-source community. The company values its people, fosters a flexible work environment, and encourages social connections among remote workers. Interested candidates can apply for Site Reliability Engineer or Software Engineer positions on their careers page.