Databases can be a significant financial burden for companies if they don't function as expected, causing downtime, inefficient management, and costly database DevOps challenges. Downtime can result in lost revenue, contracts, and user trust, with even short periods of unavailability costing millions of dollars. Poor database management, often due to lack of dedicated administrators or engineers, can lead to decreased productivity and increased costs. Furthermore, manual database schema changes can be prone to errors and downtime, creating a bottleneck for the application release process. However, with the right tools and solutions, such as PlanetScale's automated no-downtime version updates, automatic backups, and built-in query monitoring, companies can minimize these risks and optimize their database performance. By adopting best practices and leveraging technology, databases can work in favor of businesses, not against them.