Ask HN: Why aren't more companies using ScyllaDB

[callumvanengel]

ScyllaDB has bold performance and cost efficiency claims against long standing DBs like MongoDB, Cassandra and DynamoDB.

Which makes it sound like a no brainer to migrate. (Obviously use case permitting)

Discord, Comcast, Epic Games are using ScyllaDB so I wonder, why aren't more companies considering or using ScyllaDB?

[palashkulsh]

I can tell from my own workplace, scylladb people approached me for it. I make the design decisions but don't have the purchasing power while those who have the power,don't mind using anything else unless you have good reasons to persuade them. I won't have good reasons to persuade them unless I've tried it in production and played with it. I hope you see the cycle.

[callumvanengel]

Given what you know about ScyllaDB, in what areas do you believe it could offer improvements over your current database solutions?

[palashkulsh]

Scylladb people boast being better than Cassandra in terms of compute efficiency, so it can be worth a try if it saves cost.

[otmahthe]

In which area wide-column database shines overall ? Is the licensing the same as Postgre and such ?

The post of Discord switching from Cassandra to Scylla was super interesting.

[callumvanengel]

Wide column excel at scale. After speaking with a few MongoDB users this week, they reach a point where managing all that data poses more challenges and introducing wide column databases in some areas are considered.

Seems users of Cassandra switch to Scylla for better performance and cost savings. I wonder, does performance decrease after scaling Cassandra so far?

The Discord case was what interested me in Scylla initially

[VirusNewbie]

My last company used it, they even had an enterprise support contract about 5+ years ago. There were some growing pains however. Random performance issues and some other features didn't work as well as Cassandra.

I think most of that has been solved, so I feel confident in recommending it. But also, Cassandra is pretty good as well.

[callumvanengel]

Interesting insight, do you know why your last company introduced Scylla?

[VirusNewbie]

They made the decision before I joined, but from what I understood, they would run into GC issues where they'd have random downtime. To be fair, they didn't exactly have any Cassandra experts either, but it seemed easier for them to get a Scylla support contract and set it up than to hire a Cassandra expert and tune it.

[ipaddr]

MongoDB Favors Flexibility over Performance, While ScyllaDB Favors Consistent Performance over Versatility. Why not use both?

[callumvanengel]

When building a business you hire a person that wears many hats. When the business is established its time to hire specialists. And of course there's requirement for both.

MongoDB being a great option that's suitable for many use cases. And ScyllaDB can be utilised when a company requires better performance for certain tasks.

[switch007]

This smells like an ad.

[callumvanengel]

Not my intention, just looking to speak with actual users of Scylla and hear if the database lives up to Scylla's bias claims