July 2021 Summaries

At PlanetScale, we're aiming to build a database that developers love without compromising on features required for scalable applications. We've chosen Vitess as our database engine, which has been powering large-scale production systems for several years due to its enterprise-grade scalability and flexibility. Vitess provides an abstraction over MySQL with added functionality such as automated failure detection and recovery, safety features like row limits and query consolidation, and the ability to split data into multiple shards. While Vitess offers many benefits, it also comes with operational complexity and a steep learning curve. To address this, PlanetScale is designed around ease of adoption and use, providing a seamless onboarding experience and making schema changes fast and easy through its database branching and Deploy Requests features.

I am pleased to announce that Sam Lambert has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer, while I will remain as Chief Strategy Officer and board member. Sam joined PlanetScale nine months ago at a pivotal time for the company, overseeing its transition from a hosted platform to a developer-experience-focused MySQL database. He has successfully hired a top-notch team, articulated a compelling product vision, and executed on product, engineering, and marketing efforts. I have every confidence that PlanetScale will continue to thrive under Sam's leadership, and I look forward to the company's future success.

The relational model has been a surviving model in computer science for decades, suggesting its practicality and sensibility. However, it has drawbacks on the operational side, particularly with schema changes, which require significant expertise and coordination, making it challenging for developers to work with. The traditional DBA role has changed over time, and today's DBAs act more as enablers, ensuring database reliability while clearing a path for developers to do their work. Relational databases have not evolved to meet the needs of modern development velocity, requiring deeper understanding of database behavior and operational issues, making it an impediment in many cases. As a result, some companies are moving away from relational databases and opting for document stores or schema-less JSON columns to avoid the challenges associated with schema changes.

At PlanetScale, we aim to be the world’s best database for everyone by building the only serverless database platform you can start within seconds and scale continuously to meet your needs as you grow. Vercel recognized the power of our database and its potential to benefit thousands of developers using their frontend web development platform. The two companies have announced a new integration, combining a powerful serverless platform with a scalable and easy-to-use database, providing an incredible development experience with limitless scale that is elegant and easy to use. Recently, a live stream was conducted to demonstrate the features and simplicity of this integration, showcasing how developers can deploy entire applications in a matter of minutes using PlanetScale's MySQL database with Next.js and Vercel. The integration offers a game-changing solution for front-end development, allowing users to easily scale their applications as needed.