Karthik Ranganathan is co-founder and co-CEO of Yugabyte, the company behind YugabyteDB, the open-source, high-performance distributed PostgreSQL database. Karthik is a seasoned data expert and former Facebook engineer who founded Yugabyte alongside two of his Facebook colleagues to revolutionize distributed databases.
What inspired you to co-found Yugabyte, and what gaps in the market did you see that led you to create YugabyteDB?
My co-founders, Kannan Muthukkaruppan, Mikhail Bautin, and I, founded Yugabyte in 2016. As former engineers at Meta (then called Facebook), we helped build popular databases including Apache Cassandra, HBase, and RocksDB – as well as running some of these databases as managed services for internal workloads.
We created YugabyteDB because we saw a gap in the market for cloud-native transactional databases for business-critical applications. We built YugabyteDB to cater to the needs of organizations transitioning from on-premises to cloud-native operations and combined the strengths of non-relational databases with the scalability and resilience of cloud-native architectures. While building Cassandra and HBase at Facebook (which was instrumental in addressing Facebook’s significant scaling needs), we saw the rise of microservices, containerization, high availability, geographic distribution, and Application Programming Interfaces (API). We also recognized the impact that open-source technologies have in advancing the industry.
People often think of the transactional database market as crowded. While this has traditionally been true, today Postgres has become the default API for cloud-native transactional databases. Increasingly, cloud-native databases are choosing to support the Postgres protocol, which has been ingrained into the fabric of YugabyteDB, making it the most Postgres-compatible database on the market. YugabyteDB retains the power and familiarity of PostgreSQL while evolving it to an enterprise-grade distributed database suitable for modern cloud-native applications. YugabyteDB allows enterprises to efficiently build and scale systems using familiar SQL models.
How did your experiences at Facebook influence your vision for the company?
In 2007, I was considering whether to join a small but growing company–Facebook. At the time, the site had about 30 to 40 million users. I thought it might double in size, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! During my over five years at Facebook, the user base grew to 2 billion. What attracted me to the company was its culture of innovation and boldness, encouraging people to “fail fast” to catalyze innovation.
Facebook grew so large that the technical and intellectual challenges I craved were no longer present. For many years I had aspired to start my own company and tackle problems facing the common user–this led me to co-create Yugabyte.
Our mission is to simplify cloud-native applications, focusing on three essential features crucial for modern development:
- First, applications must be continuously available, ensuring uptime regardless of backups or failures, especially when running on commodity hardware in the cloud.
- Second, the ability to scale on demand is crucial, allowing developers to build and release quickly without the delay of ordering hardware.
- Third, with numerous data centers now easily accessible, replicating data across regions becomes vital for reliability and performance.
These three elements empower developers by providing the agility and freedom they need to innovate, without being constrained by infrastructure limitations.
Could you share the journey from Yugabyte’s inception in 2016 to its current status as a leader in distributed SQL databases? What were some key milestones?
At Facebook, I often talked with developers who needed specific features, like secondary indexes on SQL databases or occasional multi-node transactions. Unfortunately, the answer was usually “no,” because existing systems weren’t designed for those requirements.
Today, we are experiencing a shift towards cloud-native transactional applications that need to address scale and availability. Traditional databases simply can’t meet these needs. Modern businesses require relational databases that operate in the cloud and offer the three essential features: high availability, scalability, and geographic distribution, while still supporting SQL capabilities. These are the pillars on which we built YugabyteDB and the database challenges we’re focused on solving.
In February 2016, the founders began developing YugabyteDB, a global-scale distributed SQL database designed for cloud-native transactional applications. In July 2019, we made an unprecedented announcement and released our previously commercial features as open source. This reaffirmed our commitment to open-source principles and officially launched YugabyteDB as a fully open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) under an Apache 2.0 license.
The latest version of YugabyteDB (unveiled in September) features enhanced Postgres compatibility. It includes an Adaptive Cost-Based Optimizer (CBO) that optimizes query plans for large-scale, multi-region applications, and Smart Data Distribution that automatically determines whether to store tables together for lower latency, or to shard and distribute data for greater scalability. These enhancements allow developers to run their PostgreSQL applications on YugabyteDB efficiently and scale without the need for trade-offs or complex migrations.
YugabyteDB is known for its compatibility with PostgreSQL and its Cassandra-inspired API. How does this multi-API approach benefit developers and enterprises?
YugabyteDB’s multi-API approach benefits developers and enterprises by combining the strengths of a high-performance SQL database with the flexibility needed for global, internet-scale applications.
It supports scale-out RDBMS and high-volume Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) workloads, while maintaining low query latency and exceptional resilience. Compatibility with PostgreSQL allows for seamless lift-and-shift modernization of existing Postgres applications, requiring minimal changes.
In the latest version of the distributed database platform, released in September 2024, features like the Adaptive CBO and Smart Data Distribution enhance performance by optimizing query plans and automatically managing data placement. This allows developers to achieve low latency and high scalability without compromise, making YugabyteDB ideal for rapidly growing, cloud-native applications that require reliable data management.
AI is increasingly being integrated into database systems. How is Yugabyte leveraging AI to enhance the performance, scalability, and security of its SQL systems?
We are leveraging AI to enhance our distributed SQL database by addressing performance and migration challenges. Our upcoming Performance Copilot, an enhancement to our Performance Advisor, will simplify troubleshooting by analyzing query patterns, detecting anomalies, and providing real-time recommendations to troubleshoot database performance issues.
We are also integrating AI into YugabyteDB Voyager, our database migration tool that simplifies migrations from PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and other cloud databases to YugabyteDB. We aim to streamline transitions from legacy systems by automating schema conversion, SQL translation, and data transformation, with proactive compatibility checks. These innovations focus on making YugabyteDB smarter, more efficient, and easier for modern, distributed applications to use.
What are the key advantages of using an open-source SQL system like YugabyteDB in cloud-native applications compared to traditional proprietary databases?
Transparency, flexibility, and robust community support are key advantages when using an open-source SQL system like YugabyteDB in cloud-native applications. When we launched YugabyteDB, we recognized the skepticism surrounding open-source models. We engaged with users, who expressed a strong preference for a fully open database to trust with their critical data.
We initially ran on an open-core model, but rapidly realized it needed to be a completely open solution. Developers increasingly turn to PostgreSQL as a logical Oracle alternative, but PostgreSQL was not built for dynamic cloud platforms. YugabyteDB fills this gap by supporting PostgreSQL’s feature depth for modern cloud infrastructures. By being 100% open source, we remove roadblocks to adoption.
This makes us very attractive to developers building business-critical applications and to operations engineers running them on cloud-native platforms. Our focus is on creating a database that is not only open, but also easy to use and compatible with PostgreSQL, which remains a developer favorite due to its mature feature set and powerful extensions.
The demand for scalable and adaptable SQL solutions is growing. What trends are you observing in the enterprise database market, and how is Yugabyte positioned to meet these demands?
Larger scale in enterprise databases often leads to increased failure rates, especially as organizations deal with expanded footprints and higher data volumes. Key trends shaping the database landscape include the adoption of DBaaS, and a shift back from public cloud to private cloud environments. Additionally, the integration of generative AI brings opportunities and challenges, requiring automation and performance optimization to manage the growing data load.
Organizations are increasingly turning to DBaaS to streamline operations, despite initial concerns about control and security. This approach improves efficiency across various infrastructures, while the focus on private cloud solutions helps businesses reduce costs and enhance scalability for their workloads.
YugabyteDB addresses these evolving demands by combining the strengths of relational databases with the scalability of cloud-native architectures. Features like Smart Data Distribution and an Adaptive CBO, enhance performance and support a large number of database objects. This makes it a competitive choice for running a wide range of applications.
Furthermore, YugabyteDB allows enterprises to migrate their PostgreSQL applications while maintaining similar performance levels, crucial for modern workloads. Our commitment to open-source development encourages community involvement and provides flexibility for customers who want to avoid vendor lock-in.
With the rise of edge computing and IoT, how does YugabyteDB address the challenges posed by these technologies, particularly regarding data distribution and latency?
YugabyteDB’s distributed SQL architecture is designed to meet the challenges posed by the rise of edge computing and IoT by providing a scalable and resilient data layer that can operate seamlessly in both cloud and edge contexts. Its ability to automatically shard and replicate data ensures efficient distribution, enabling quick access and real-time processing. This minimizes latency, allowing applications to respond swiftly to user interactions and data changes.
By offering the flexibility to adapt configurations based on specific application requirements, YugabyteDB ensures that enterprises can effectively manage their data needs as they evolve in an increasingly decentralized landscape.
As Co-CEO, how do you balance the dual roles of leading technological innovation and managing company growth?
Our company aims to simplify cloud-native applications, compelling me to stay on top of technology trends, such as generative AI and context switches. Following innovation demands curiosity, a desire to make an impact, and a commitment to continuous learning.
Balancing technological innovation and company growth is fundamentally about scaling–whether it’s scaling systems or scaling impact. In distributed databases, we focus on building technologies that scale performance, handle massive workloads, and ensure high availability across a global infrastructure. Similarly, scaling Yugabyte means growing our customer base, enhancing community engagement, and expanding our ecosystem–while maintaining operational excellence.
All this requires a disciplined approach to performance and efficiency.
Technically, we optimize query execution, reduce latency, and improve system throughput; organizationally, we streamline processes, scale teams, and enhance cross-functional collaboration. In both cases, success comes from empowering teams with the right tools, insights, and processes to make smart, data-driven decisions.
How do you see the role of distributed SQL databases evolving in the next 5-10 years, particularly in the context of AI and machine learning?
In the next few years, distributed SQL databases will evolve to handle complex data analysis, enabling users to make predictions and detect anomalies with minimal technical expertise. There is an immense amount of database specialization in the context of AI and machine learning, but that is not sustainable. Databases will need to evolve to meet the demands of AI. This is why we’re iterating and enhancing capabilities on top of pgvector, ensuring developers can use Yugabyte for their AI database needs.
Additionally, we can expect an ongoing commitment to open source in AI development. Five years ago, we made YugabyteDB fully open source under the Apache 2.0 license, reinforcing our dedication to an open-source framework and proactively building our open-source community.
Thank you for all of your detailed responses, readers who wish to learn more should visit YugabyteDB.