What does it actually take to build a managed database service on Kubernetes?

In this talk, we walk through the real architecture behind an open source RDS built on Kubernetes—starting from a single containerized database and evolving into a production-ready platform. We’ll cover key design decisions around storage, scaling, failover, observability, and user experience, including what worked, what failed, and what we’d do differently. You’ll learn practical patterns for running stateful workloads on Kubernetes and how to avoid common pitfalls when building database platforms. Whether you’re operating databases or designing developer platforms, you’ll leave with concrete ideas you can apply immediately.