Scaling Databases with TiDB: AWS Community Day Bangalore 2025

The Problem We All Face ## Manual Configuration Nightmares ## Vertical Scaling Hits a Wall ## Performance Issues That Hurt ## What is Distributed SQL? ## Enter TiDB: The Open Source Solution ## How TiDB Works: Architecture Made Simple ## Compute Layer ## Row Store ## Columnar Store ## Placement Driver (PD) ## TiDB vs Traditional Databases: The Real Difference ## What This Means for DBAs ## The Operational Simplicity Win ## Three Deployment Options on AWS ## TiDB Cloud Serverless ## TiDB Cloud Dedicated ## TiDB Self-Managed ## Conclusion ## References ## Also Published On One session at AWS Community Day Bangalore 2025 in May fundamentally altered my perspective on database scalability. Senior Solution Architect Ankit Kapoor of TiDB gave a very enlightening session titled "From Startup to Scale-up: Your Database's Growth Journey." This is for you if you've ever had trouble with database scaling. To be honest, conventional relational databases function flawlessly until they break down. Ankit outlined the difficulties faced by the majority of expanding businesses: Shard mapping needs to be configured manually. Cross-shard searches add needless complexity to application code. Under heavy load, concurrency constraints result in row-level locking. Several housekeeping tasks take up important time. A bottleneck is created by mutex contention. Growth is restricted by shared resource bottlenecks. Commodity hardware is plagued with OOM problems and low CPU utilization. Writes continue to be bottlenecked, but read operations scale It is only possible to achieve eventual consistency. Analytical queries don't work well with row-based storage. Semantic search moves slowly. Does that sound familiar? The majority of us have been there, which is why. This is the fascinating part. Distributed SQL is an advanced database architecture that blends the greatest features of both worlds; it's not just another catchphrase. It offers both the horizontal scale of NoSQL databases and the transactional guarantees of relational databases, as Ankit clarified. Take a moment to consider that. Scalability is maintained while achieving ACID compliance. I was drawn to TiDB because of its outstanding credentials: Founded in 2015 and 100% open source 38,000+ GitHub Stars showing strong developer interest 800+ Contributors building and improving it 10,000+ Adopters worldwide 8,000+ Slack Users in an active community Big names like Pinterest, CAPCOM, Conga, Bolt, and Ninja trust TiDB with their production workloads. Over 4,000+ enterprise adopters across 25 countries use it daily. Ankit divided the architecture of TiDB into four primary parts: Handles SQL processing and query optimization MySQL compatible (huge win for migration!) Distributed key - value storage Perfect for OLTP workloads with strong consistency Enables real-time analytics on transactional data Uses a columnar storage engine for analytical queries Balances data distribution across nodes automatically The beauty? Storage and computation are entirely distinct. This implies that you can scale them on your own according to your requirements. Conventional databases employ a single-master configuration in which read replicas use transaction log replication to handle read traffic while one instance manages writes. It's limiting, but it works. This model is flipped by TiDB. While ensuring ACID transactions with excellent read consistency, several TiDB instances manage both reads and writes concurrently. The computation layer is stateless and scalable on its own, while the storage layer (TiKV) is horizontally scalable and supports many replicas. Ankit emphasized how TiDB reduces operational headaches: Horizontal Scaling: Automatic sharding and seamless scaling without the need for human intervention 99.99% Availability: Your data is kept accessible by auto-failover and self-healing. Mixed Workloads: AI, analytical, and transactional workloads are all handled by a single database. Strong Consistency: Strong data integrity and worldwide compliance in ACID transactions Security: Enterprise-grade encryption both in-flight and at-rest MySQL Compatibility: Easy migration path for existing MySQL users Multi-Cloud: Deploy across your preferred cloud platforms 100% Open Source: Transparent, community-driven development I was very impressed by TiDB's integrated Grafana and Prometheus dashboards. Instant monitoring, performance measurements, and system health data straight out of the box, no further setup or configuration nightmare. For teams without dedicated DevOps resources, this is a game-changer. TiDB offers flexibility based on your needs: Fully managed with effortless scalability Pay-as-you-go pricing 99.99% availability (currently 99.9%) Perfect for variable workloads, web applications, and microservices Fully managed with high performance Subscription pricing starting at $2/hour with volume discounts Ideal for mission-critical applications with heavy read/write operations Self-managed for maximum control Premium support available Best for large enterprises with complex infrastructure needs My understanding of database architecture has changed as a result of this session. For many years, traditional databases worked well for us, but contemporary applications require more. TiDB solves actual scalability issues without requiring you to give up on SQL or ACID guarantees. It is a strong competitor due to its open-source nature and production-proven dependability at large corporations. TiDB should be included in your evaluation list if your present database is experiencing scaling issues or if you are designing a new system that must accommodate expansion. AWS Community Day Bangalore still offers insightful, useful content from actual professionals addressing actual issues. Sessions like Ankit's serve as a reminder of the importance of community gatherings since they provide us with solutions that we might not otherwise come across. Event: AWS Community Day Bangalore 2025 Topic: Scaling Databases with TiDB Location: Conrad Benguluru Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Are you sure you want to hide this comment? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse - Shard mapping needs to be configured manually. - Cross-shard searches add needless complexity to application code. - Under heavy load, concurrency constraints result in row-level locking. - Several housekeeping tasks take up important time. - A bottleneck is created by mutex contention. - Growth is restricted by shared resource bottlenecks. - Commodity hardware is plagued with OOM problems and low CPU utilization. - Writes continue to be bottlenecked, but read operations scale - It is only possible to achieve eventual consistency. - Analytical queries don't work well with row-based storage. - Semantic search moves slowly. - Founded in 2015 and 100% open source - 38,000+ GitHub Stars showing strong developer interest - 800+ Contributors building and improving it - 10,000+ Adopters worldwide - 8,000+ Slack Users in an active community - Handles SQL processing and query optimization - MySQL compatible (huge win for migration!) - Distributed key - value storage - Perfect for OLTP workloads with strong consistency - Enables real-time analytics on transactional data - Uses a columnar storage engine for analytical queries - Manages metadata - Balances data distribution across nodes automatically - Horizontal Scaling: Automatic sharding and seamless scaling without the need for human intervention - 99.99% Availability: Your data is kept accessible by auto-failover and self-healing. - Mixed Workloads: AI, analytical, and transactional workloads are all handled by a single database. - Strong Consistency: Strong data integrity and worldwide compliance in ACID transactions - Security: Enterprise-grade encryption both in-flight and at-rest - MySQL Compatibility: Easy migration path for existing MySQL users - Multi-Cloud: Deploy across your preferred cloud platforms - 100% Open Source: Transparent, community-driven development - Fully managed with effortless scalability - Pay-as-you-go pricing - 99.99% availability (currently 99.9%) - Perfect for variable workloads, web applications, and microservices - Fully managed with high performance - 99.99% availability - Subscription pricing starting at $2/hour with volume discounts - Ideal for mission-critical applications with heavy read/write operations - Self-managed for maximum control - Custom pricing - Premium support available - Best for large enterprises with complex infrastructure needs