Apps have become the backbone of everyday life, powering everything from streaming platforms to food delivery services. But their success relies on something most users never think about: the databases behind the scenes. These systems store, manage, and retrieve the data that keeps apps running smoothly — whether it’s processing transactions, updating user information, or handling sudden spikes in demand.
Yet, as platforms grow, traditional databases can struggle to meet growing business demands. Often hosted on local servers, these systems lack the capacity to scale and the flexibility to process more data, leading to frustrating delays or lengthy service interruptions that disrupt operations and drive users away.
This is where cloud-native databases come in. By hosting data over the internet through third-party providers, these systems allow businesses to scale effortlessly, handle unexpected challenges, and update their services with no downtime.
This is what solutions engineering leader Amey Banarse recently addressed at AWS re:Invent 2024, one of the largest cloud computing conferences in the world. Banarse took to the stage to explore how cloud-native databases like his company’s YugabyteDB are helping businesses expand their infrastructure and create resilient mission-critical applications capable of operating even under the toughest conditions.
Read on to learn more about Banarse’s work in cloud computing, the data industry, and his key insights from the AWS re:Invent 2024 conference.
Meet Amey Banarse
From the outset of his career, Amey Banarse has demonstrated exceptional prowess in the fields of data analytics and solutions engineering. With a Master of Science (MS) in Networking & Computer Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Amey Banarse has been an engineer for over 15 years, working at tech companies like Gemini Systems and Pivotal Software, which was a part of Dell Technologies. He built an illustrious career in data engineering, working with a range of companies, from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises, to architect solutions that meet the ever-growing demands of modern data systems.
In 2019, he joined YugabyteDB Inc., where he now serves as the company’s Vice President of Solutions Engineering, helping businesses modernize their data operations.
His team specializes in transitioning legacy databases to YugabyteDB, the company’s cloud-native platform designed for large-scale applications. Under his leadership, YugabyteDB has been successfully incorporated by multiple Fortune 500 companies like General Motors, Kroger, Paramount+, Wells Fargo, and Comcast, enabling them to adapt to their growing user base.
At Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent 2024 conference in Las Vegas, Banarse presented “Design Patterns for Multi-Region Applications and Data in AWS,” a session that addressed YugabyteDB’s capabilities across three major areas: its technical foundation, its focus on resilience, and its impact on real-world applications.
1. The Backbone of YugabyteDB
Amey Banarse began by breaking down the core of YugabyteDB’s architecture and underscored the critical importance of scalable, resilient database architecture in today’s digital landscape.
This database is built by leveraging PostgreSQL, an open-source database management system built on the SQL programming language. Currently the fourth most-used database system used among professional developers, Banarse highlighted how PostgreSQL lowers the learning curve for developers when adopting YugabyteDB, allowing them to focus on designing their applications rather than relearning basic tools.
Amey Banarse then explored the relationship between this platform and YugabyteDB by introducing the “PostgreSQL Innovation Threshold,” a framework that compares various databases (like Google AlloyDB, Spanner, and Amazon Aurora) based on the extent of their cloud architecture and their PostgreSQL compatibility. YugabyteDB stood out among this framework as it combines a fully cloud-native design with deep integration with PostgreSQL’s features. This is achieved through Yugabyte’s close collaboration with PostgreSQL’s active community of developers and contributors, which allows YugabyteDB to integrate PostgreSQL’s latest software updates as they’re being developed and introduced into the system.
By staying in sync with the community, developers using YugabyteDB not only gain access to a familiar toolset but also benefit from advanced features, blending the reliability of PostgreSQL with the scalability and flexibility of the cloud. This makes it an ideal choice for businesses that need to modernize their database infrastructure without compromising on stability or speed.
2. The Importance of Resilient Systems
Banarse then dove into the concept of resilience, a critical aspect in modern database systems, explaining how users expect applications to operate without interruption as platforms continue to expand their outreach. As a result, systems need to become “ultra-resilient” — meaning they must be able to both recover from failures instantly and continue to perform without downtime or disruptions.
He went on to explain how YugabyteDB achieves this with geo-distributed cloud architecture. Unlike traditional centralized databases with single points of failure, YugabyteDB distributes data across multiple independent servers in different geographic locations. This means that if one server or region experiences issues (whether from a DDoS attack or a natural disaster), the system can continue operating without interruption, allowing developers to address the problem in isolation without affecting users.
Banarse explained how this architecture helps businesses design systems that remain functional around the clock without sacrificing performance or reliability. Whether it’s managing the data deluge during a Super Bowl broadcast or ensuring financial transactions are processed without delay, resilience is now a mission-critical aspect of any digital strategy.
3. The Real-World Impact of Cloud-Native Infrastructure
Banarse concluded his session by showcasing real-world examples of how Yugabyte’s cloud systems have been incorporated across multiple industries.
For example, streaming platform Paramount+ transitioned from MySQL, a database with a single point of failure, to YugabyteDB’s multi-region cloud design, which allowed them to replicate data across multiple U.S. regions. This shift proved critical for the platform during high-demand events like the 2024 Super Bowl, which saw over 125 million viewers with zero downtime.
He also highlighted a major financial services investment firm that adopted YugabyteDB’s active-active multi-region setup to handle high throughput and low latency, enabling the company to process massive volumes of transactions while meeting stringent regulatory requirements. This case demonstrated how YugabyteDB’s distributed architecture could adapt to the fluctuating needs of the financial sector without sacrificing performance.
Finally, he shared the case study of a global retailer that powered their product catalog with YugabyteDB’s geo-distributed system, which proved crucial during the 2021 Texas snowstorm, as the retailer managed to redirect its operations to unaffected regions with zero data loss and keep recovery times under 10 seconds.
These stories serve as a testament to cloud-driven platforms’ ability to maintain business operations during emergencies and periods of high demand and reinforce YugabyteDB’s reputation as a reliable solution for all kinds of businesses.
Helping Companies Build Mission Critical Business Applications
Amey Banarse’s presentation at AWS re:Invent 2024 showed a vision of how cloud-driven databases like YugabyteDB are eliminating the limitations of traditional systems. By highlighting the benefits of cloud-native architectures with reusing PostgreSQL, distributing data across multiple locations, and testing updates without interruptions, Banarse’s session showed how companies across all sectors can leverage the cloud to scale their operations and build more resilient applications, enabling them to meet the ever-growing demands of users and industries alike.
For a deeper dive into Banarse’s insights regarding the future of cloud-native resilience, watch his full presentation from AWS re:Invent 2024 on YouTube.
