[Hyperborian]

> How do they store their data?

SQL.

> How do their different applications talk to each other?

Proprietary APIs.

> How do they scale their systems to work for millions of users?

T H E C L O U D

> How do they keep them secure?

They just... don't.

> How do they make sure nothing goes wrong?

They just... don't.

> What are APIs, webhooks and client libraries, when you really get down to it?

Easily outsourced to India.

[mberning]

That last point is so painful and true. I work with a product that has dozens if not hundreds of “connectors” to interface with other systems and you can tell that most of them were farmed out to the lowest bidder.