September 2021 Summaries

Amazon Web Services' relational database service, Amazon RDS, is a MySQL database hosted in the cloud with limitations such as connection limits and an inflexible pricing structure. In contrast, PlanetScale is a MySQL database also hosted in the cloud but designed to scale with growth and fit into developer workflows. The main reasons businesses are switching from RDS to PlanetScale are scalability issues with connection limits and connection pooling, as well as the total cost of ownership and the complexity of using RDS. PlanetScale's technology allows for non-blocking schema changes, staging branches, and CI/CD workflow automation, making it easier for developers to manage databases without downtime or maintenance windows. Additionally, PlanetScale offers a better developer workflow that reduces time to feature and overhead associated with data tickets.

The PlanetScale team has introduced a new web console to improve the developer experience by allowing users to run SQL commands against their database branches without requiring command line knowledge or CLI expertise. The web console provides a user-friendly interface for managing database branches, including friendly error messages and support for quick deploys. This feature is designed to be accessible to a wider range of users, enabling them to easily manage their PlanetScale databases using just the website.