For Better Performance Your Distributed Database Should Work Like A CDN

The article discusses how distributed databases can benefit from adopting the behavior of content delivery networks (CDNs) to improve performance. CDNs distribute data globally, reducing latency and improving speed between a service and its users. However, distributed databases have struggled with managing state across multiple machines, leading businesses to shy away from multi-region deployments. The article highlights the costs of single-region deployments, including slower speeds due to distance, lower availability during natural disasters or other catastrophes, and non-compliance with data regulations like GDPR. It also explores various solutions for achieving optimal database performance with CDN behavior, such as managed databases, NoSQL databases, sharded relational databases, and CockroachDB. The author emphasizes that a truly distributed database should be able to deploy anywhere, reduce latency by performing reads and writes close to users while maintaining consistency, maintain uptime by tolerating faults, and offer granular control over geographical placement of data for GDPR compliance.