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PlanetScale Postgres with CEO Sam Lambert
Database School22 September 2025·1 hours 6 minutes
Sam Lambert, my former boss at PlanetScale, talks to me about PlanetScale moving from a MySQL company to now also having a Postgres offering. Sam shares why PlanetScale decided to move to Postgres, how MySQL and Postgres are different at a technical level, and how the change has impacted the company culture. Stay to the end for a special surprise!
PlanetScale Metal Episode: https://youtu.be/3r9PsVwGkg4
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/isamlambert
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Chapters:
00:00 - Inaugural episode on this channel
01:46 - Introducing Sam Lambert and his background
03:04 - How PlanetScale built on MySQL and Vitess
06:10 - Explaining the layers of PlanetScale’s architecture
09:57 - Node lifecycles, failover, and operational discipline
12:02 - How Vitess makes sharding work
14:21 - PlanetScale’s edge network and resharding
19:02 - Why downtime is unacceptable at scale
20:04 - From Metal to Postgres: the decision process
23:06 - Why Postgres vibes matter for startups
27:04 - How PlanetScale adapted its stack for Postgres
34:38 - Entering the Postgres ecosystem and extensions
41:02 - Permissions, security, and reliability trade-offs
45:04 - Building Ni: a Vitess-style system for Postgres
53:33 - Why PlanetScale insists on control for reliability
1:02:05 - Competing in the broader Postgres landscape
1:08:33 - Why PlanetScale stays “just a database”
1:12:33 - What GA means for Postgres at PlanetScale
1:17:43 - Call to action for new Postgres users
1:18:49 - Surprise!
1:22:21 - Wrap-up and where to find Sam