CockroachDB 2.1 introduces significant enhancements aimed at improving scalability, ease of migration, and operational efficiency for global applications. The new version offers 5x scalability improvements for transactional workloads, enabling developers to handle more complex and growing data demands without sacrificing data consistency. The release facilitates easier migration from MySQL and Postgres through enhanced import capabilities, supporting developers transitioning from these popular databases. Additionally, CockroachDB 2.1 introduces a managed service to simplify the deployment of low-latency, multi-region clusters and provides tools for better performance monitoring and debugging. The update also includes beta support for Change Data Capture (CDC) to stream changes to systems like Apache Kafka, promoting real-time data integration and event triggering. Managed CockroachDB, currently in limited availability, promises to streamline the deployment of geo-distributed clusters by handling networking and provisioning tasks, allowing teams to concentrate on application development.