GoKawiilSpacetimeDB explains its approach to database scalability across compute, storage and networking
The database maker Spacetime published a detailed breakdown of how it handles scaling, arguing that scalability splits into three separate dimensions: compute, storage, and networking. It says horizontally scalable storage is coming October 31, 2026, while networking and computation cannot always be scaled horizontally, especially for OLTP workloads with contending transactions.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
Many distributed databases like CockroachDB, Spanner, and Aurora DSQL market themselves as generally horizontally scalable, but Spacetime argues this claim hides steep per-transaction overhead and poor performance under contention. By distinguishing which workloads can actually be parallelized, the company is positioning Spacetime as a more honest and performant alternative for OLTP-heavy applications rather than a one-size-fits-all scaling solution.
- Scalability breaks down into three distinct dimensions: compute, storage, and networking.
- Horizontal storage scaling is straightforward and slated for release October 31, 2026.
- Not all computation and networking scale horizontally; contended OLTP transactions expose hidden overhead in rivals like CockroachDB.
Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann — If this post's tour of compute, storage, and networking scalability hooked you, Kleppmann's book is the classic deep dive into exactly those tradeoffs. It walks through replication, partitioning, and transaction contention from first principles, so debates about horizontally scaling OLTP databases suddenly make a lot more sense.
See Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: spacetimedb.com, 2026-09-04
Published there as: “Ok, but Does It Scale?”
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