Cockroach Labs has launched the beta version of CockroachDB, an open-source database designed to address the evolving needs of businesses by offering scalability, survivability, and SQL compatibility, all while ensuring strong consistency. The development team has grown significantly, and the project has matured rapidly, with the inclusion of SQL being a pivotal decision to avoid leaving developers with incomplete functionality. The database aims to support real-world use cases by allowing for distributed transactions, online schema changes without downtime, self-healing capabilities, and an intuitive deployment process. As the system continues to develop, future enhancements will focus on expanding SQL capabilities, improving stability, and refining performance to establish CockroachDB as a scalable database solution comparable to established platforms like Postgres and MySQL. The CockroachDB beta invites new users to test its features, participate in its community, and contribute to its ongoing evolution.