Was hoping to read about graph database, AI-related changes..., but didn't expect this: "I almost died in the spring semester...surprisingly hard to concentrate on important things like databases when you can't breathe." Hope Prof. Pavlo has been breathing better, stellar review.
Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
171–180 of 196 posts
Re: Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thats basically how the web started. You can serve a ridiculous number of users from a single physical machine. It isn't until you get into the hundreds-of-millions of users ballpark where you need to actually create architecture. The "cloud" lets you rent a small part of a physical machine, so it actually feels like you need more machines than you do. But a modern server? Easily 16-32+ cores, 128+gb of ram, and hund…
I agree...there is scale and then there is scale. And then there is scale like Facebook. We need not assume internet FB level scale for typical biz apps where one instance may support a few hundred users max. Or even few thousand. Over engineering under such assumptions is likely cost ineffective and may even increase surface area of risk. $0.02
It goes much further than that.. a single moderately sized VPS web server can handle millions of hard-to-cache requests per day, all hitting the db.
Most will want to use a managed db, but for a real basic setup you can just run postgres or mysql on the same box. And running your own db on a separate VPS is not hard either.
Re: Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? Sqlite and LMDB make fantastic use of it. For anyone doing a single writer db it's a no brainer. It does so much for you and it does it very well. All the things you don't have to implement because it does it for you: - Reading the data from disk - Concurrency between different threads reading the same data - Caching and buffer management - Eviction of pages from memory - Playing nice with other processes in the…
“ It's such a great fit for scaling reads.” And losing them.
How so? LMDB, boltdb/bbolt and sqlite (with mmap) are all rock solid. Just because mongodb used mmap badly does not make it any less valuable.
Re: Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Andy is very critical of using mmap in database implementations.
Why? Sqlite and LMDB make fantastic use of it. For anyone doing a single writer db it's a no brainer. It does so much for you and it does it very well. All the things you don't have to implement because it does it for you: - Reading the data from disk - Concurrency between different threads reading the same data - Caching and buffer management - Eviction of pages from memory - Playing nice with other processes in the…
The strongest argument as far as I can see it is... the problem is you now lose control over all those things. It's a black box with effectively no knobs.
Anyways, read for yourself, Pavlo & Leis get into it in detail, and there's benchmarks:
Re: Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny how people used to ask "what is a cloud application", and now they ask "what is a local application" :-) Local as in "desktop application on the local machine" where you are the sole user.
That commenter's idea clearly wasn't about desktop application on a local machine. That is why I asked.
You mean Andrew's comment? I took it in the broadest sense to try and give a more complete answer.
Re: Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There are rumblings that the MySQL project is rudderless after Oracle fired the team working on the open-source project in September 2025. Not just the open-source project; 80%+ (depending a bit on when you start counting) of the MySQL team as a whole was let go, and the SVP in charge of MySQL was, eh, “moving to another part of the org to spend more time with his family”. There was never really a separate “MySQL C…
Wouldn't Oracle need those 80%+ devs if they wanted to shift their efforts into Heatwave? That percentage sounds too huge to me and if true I believe they won't be making any larger investments into Heatwave neither. There's several core teams in MySQL and if you let those people go ... I don't know, I am not sure what to make out of it but that Oracle is completely moving away from MySQL as a strategic component of…
> Wouldn't Oracle need those 80%+ devs if they wanted to shift their efforts into Heatwave?
They would, so Heatwave is also going to suffer over this.
Re: Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
#177While the author mentions that he just doesn't have the time to look at all the databases, none of the reviews of the last few years mention immutable and/or bi-temporal databases. Which looks more like a blind spot to me honestly. This category of databases is just fantastic for industries like fintech. Two candidates are sticking out. https://xtdb.com/blog/launching-xtdb-v2 (2025) https://blog.datomic.com/2023/04/d…
People are slow to realize the benefit of immutable databases, but it is happening. It's not just auditability; immutable databases can also allow concurrent reads while writes are happening, fast cloning of data structures, and fast undo of transactions. The ones you mentioned are large backend databases, but I'm working on an "immutable SQLite"...a single file immutable database that is embedded and works as a libr…
Are there any new big research/development in immutable database?
I know they are great... but i don't see many news around them
Re: Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
#178Maybe off-topic but, If you're not familiar with the CMU DB Group you might want to check out their eccentric teaching style [1]. I absolutely love their gangsta intros like [2] and pre-lecture dj sets like [3]. I also remember a video where he was lecturing with someone sleeping on the floor in the background for some reason. I can't find that video right now. Not too sure about the context or Andy's biography, I'll…
Andy Pavlo absolutely seems like the kind of guy that I would want to get a drink with.
Re: Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
#179”I still haven't met anybody who is actively using Dgraph.”
That’s because it is mostly used in national security and military applications in several countries.
Re: Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
#180The author mentions about it in the name change for edgeDb to gel. However, it could also have been added in the Acquisitions landscape. Gel joined vercel [1]. 1. https://www.geldata.com/blog/gel-joins-vercel
You just ruined my day. The post makes it sound like gel is now dead. The post by Vercel does not give me much hope either [1]. Last commit on the gel repo was two weeks ago. [1] https://vercel.com/blog/investing-in-the-python-ecosystem
I would think a two-week break over the holiday season wouldn't be a death knell.