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Cloud

Did RedNote Exit the Cloud?

When a company that was “born on the cloud” goes “self-host first,” does that count as cloud exit? A repost of a deleted piece on the infrastructure coming-of-age for Chinas internet giants.
By vonng |

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When a company that was “born on the cloud” goes “self-host first,” does that count as cloud exit? A repost of a deleted piece on the infrastructure coming-of-age for Chinas internet giants. Read more

Alipay, Taobao, Xianyu Went Dark. Smells Like a Message Queue Meltdown.

Dec 4, 2025, Taobao, Alipay, and Xianyu all cratered. Users got charged while orders still showed “unpaid,” a carbon copy of the 2024 Double-11 fiasco.
By Feng Ruohang (@Vonng) |

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Dec 4, 2025, Taobao, Alipay, and Xianyu all cratered. Users got charged while orders still showed “unpaid,” a carbon copy of the 2024 Double-11 fiasco. Read more

Cloudflare’s Nov 18 Outage, Translated and Dissected

A ClickHouse permission tweak doubled a feature file, tripped a Rust hard limit, and froze Cloudflare’s core traffic for six hours—their worst outage since 2019. Here’s the full translation plus commentary.
By Feng Ruohang (@Vonng) | WeChat |

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A ClickHouse permission tweak doubled a feature file, tripped a Rust hard limit, and froze Cloudflare’s core traffic for six hours—their worst outage since 2019. Here’s the full translation plus commentary. Read more

Alicloud “Borrowed” Supabase. This Is What Happens When Giants Strip-Mine Open-Source.

Founders here get asked the same question over and over: what if Alibaba builds the same thing? Alicloud RDS just launched Supabase as a managed service. Exhibit A.
By Feng Ruohang (@Vonng) |

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Founders here get asked the same question over and over: what if Alibaba builds the same thing? Alicloud RDS just launched Supabase as a managed service. Exhibit A. Read more

AWS’s Official DynamoDB Outage Postmortem

AWS finally published the Oct 20 us-east-1 postmortem. I translated the key parts and added commentary on how one DNS bug toppled half the internet.
By Feng Ruohang (@Vonng) | WeChat |

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AWS finally published the Oct 20 us-east-1 postmortem. I translated the key parts and added commentary on how one DNS bug toppled half the internet. Read more

How One AWS DNS Failure Cascaded Across Half the Internet

us-east-1’s DNS control plane faceplanted for 15 hours and dragged 142 AWS services—and a good chunk of the public internet—down with it. Here’s the forensic tour.
By Feng Ruohang (@Vonng) | WeChat |

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us-east-1’s DNS control plane faceplanted for 15 hours and dragged 142 AWS services—and a good chunk of the public internet—down with it. Here’s the forensic tour. Read more

Column: Cloud-Exit

A whole generation of developers has been told “cloud-first.” This column collects data, case studies, and analysis on the cloud exit movement.
By vonng |

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A whole generation of developers has been told “cloud-first.” This column collects data, case studies, and analysis on the cloud exit movement. Read more

KubeSphere: Trust Crisis Behind Open-Source Supply Cut

Deleting images and running away - this isn’t about commercial closed-source issues, but supply cut problems that directly destroy years of accumulated community trust.
By vonng |

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Deleting images and running away - this isn’t about commercial closed-source issues, but supply cut problems that directly destroy years of accumulated community trust. Read more

Alicloud’s rds_duckdb: Tribute or Rip-Off?

Does bolting DuckDB onto RDS suddenly make open-source Postgres ‘trash’? Business and open source should be symbiotic. If a vendor only extracts without giving back, the community will spit it out."
By Ruohang Feng |

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Does bolting DuckDB onto RDS suddenly make open-source Postgres ‘trash’? Business and open source should be symbiotic. If a vendor only extracts without giving back, the community will spit it out." Read more

Escaping Cloud Computing Scam Mills: The Big Fool Paying for Pain

A user consulted about distributed databases, but he wasn’t dealing with data bursting through server cabinet doors—rather, he’d fallen into another cloud computing pig-butchering scam.
By Vonng (@Vonng) |

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A user consulted about distributed databases, but he wasn’t dealing with data bursting through server cabinet doors—rather, he’d fallen into another cloud computing pig-butchering scam. Read more

OpenAI Global Outage Postmortem: K8S Circular Dependencies

Even trillion-dollar unicorns can be a house of cards when operating outside their core expertise.
By Original Translated by: Vonng (@Vonng) |

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Even trillion-dollar unicorns can be a house of cards when operating outside their core expertise. Read more

WordPress Community Civil War: On Community Boundary Demarcation

When open source ideals meet commercial conflicts, what insights can this conflict between open source software communities and cloud vendors bring? On the importance of community boundary demarcation.
By Vonng (Feng Ruohang) | WeChat Public Account |

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When open source ideals meet commercial conflicts, what insights can this conflict between open source software communities and cloud vendors bring? On the importance of community boundary demarcation. Read more

Cloud Database: Michelin Prices for Cafeteria Pre-made Meals

The paradigm shift brought by RDS, whether cloud databases are overpriced cafeteria meals. Quality, security, efficiency, and cost analysis, cloud exit database self-building: how to implement in practice!
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng） |

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The paradigm shift brought by RDS, whether cloud databases are overpriced cafeteria meals. Quality, security, efficiency, and cost analysis, cloud exit database self-building: how to implement in practice! Read more

Alibaba-Cloud: High Availability Disaster Recovery Myth Shattered

Seven days after Singapore Zone C failure, availability not even reaching 8, let alone multiple 9s. But compared to data loss, availability is just a minor issue
By Ruohang Feng（@Vonng） |

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Seven days after Singapore Zone C failure, availability not even reaching 8, let alone multiple 9s. But compared to data loss, availability is just a minor issue Read more

Amateur Hour Opera: Alibaba-Cloud PostgreSQL Disaster Chronicle

A customer experienced an outrageous cascade of failures on cloud database last week: a high-availability PG RDS cluster went down completely - both primary and replica servers - after attempting a simple memory expansion, troubleshooting until dawn. Poor recommendations abounded during the incident, and the postmortem was equally perfunctory. I share this case study here for reference and review.
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng） | Zhihu Column | WeChat Official Account |

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A customer experienced an outrageous cascade of failures on cloud database last week: a high-availability PG RDS cluster went down completely - both primary and replica servers - after attempting a simple memory expansion, troubleshooting until dawn. Poor recommendations abounded during the incident, and the postmortem was equally perfunctory. I share this case study here for reference and review. Read more

What Can We Learn from NetEase Cloud Music's Outage?

NetEase Cloud Music experienced a two-and-a-half-hour outage this afternoon. Based on circulating online clues, we can deduce that the real cause behind this incident was…
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng） |

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NetEase Cloud Music experienced a two-and-a-half-hour outage this afternoon. Based on circulating online clues, we can deduce that the real cause behind this incident was… Read more

Blue Screen Friday: Amateur Hour on Both Sides

Both client and vendor failed to control blast radius, leading to this epic global security incident that will greatly benefit local-first software philosophy.
By Vonng（@Vonng）| WeChat |

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Both client and vendor failed to control blast radius, leading to this epic global security incident that will greatly benefit local-first software philosophy. Read more

How Ahrefs Saved US$400M by NOT Going to the Cloud

After Alibaba-Cloud’s epic global outage on Double 11, setting industry records, how should we evaluate this incident and what lessons can we learn from it?
By Efim Mirochnik Translator: Ruohang Feng（@Vonng） | WeChat |

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After Alibaba-Cloud’s epic global outage on Double 11, setting industry records, how should we evaluate this incident and what lessons can we learn from it? Read more

Database Deletion Supreme - Google Cloud Nuked a Major Fund's Entire Cloud Account

Due to an “unprecedented configuration error,” Google Cloud mistakenly deleted trillion-RMB fund giant UniSuper’s entire cloud account, cloud environment and all off-site backups, setting a new record in cloud computing history!
By Feng Ruohang (@Vonng) | WeChat Official Account |

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Due to an “unprecedented configuration error,” Google Cloud mistakenly deleted trillion-RMB fund giant UniSuper’s entire cloud account, cloud environment and all off-site backups, setting a new record in cloud computing history! Read more

Cloud Dark Forest: Exploding Cloud Bills with Just S3 Bucket Names

The dark forest law has emerged on public cloud: Anyone who knows your S3 object storage bucket name can explode your cloud bill.
By Maciej Pocwierz | Translated by: Feng Ruohang（@Vonng）| WeChat Original | English Original |

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The dark forest law has emerged on public cloud: Anyone who knows your S3 object storage bucket name can explode your cloud bill. Read more

Cloudflare Roundtable Interview and Q&A Record

As a roundtable guest, I was invited to participate in Cloudflare’s Immerse conference in Shenzhen. During the dinner, I had in-depth discussions with Cloudflare’s APAC CMO, Greater China Technical Director, and front-line engineers about many questions of interest to netizens.
By Vonng（@Vonng）| WeChat |

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As a roundtable guest, I was invited to participate in Cloudflare’s Immerse conference in Shenzhen. During the dinner, I had in-depth discussions with Cloudflare’s APAC CMO, Greater China Technical Director, and front-line engineers about many questions of interest to netizens. Read more

What Can We Learn from Tencent Cloud's Major Outage?

Tencent Cloud’s epic global outage after Double 11 set industry records. How should we evaluate and view this failure, and what lessons can we learn from it?
By Vonng (@Vonng) |

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Tencent Cloud’s epic global outage after Double 11 set industry records. How should we evaluate and view this failure, and what lessons can we learn from it? Read more

Cloudflare - The Cyber Buddha That Destroys Public Cloud

While I’ve always advocated for cloud exit, if it’s about adopting a cyber bodhisattva cloud like Cloudflare, I’m all in with both hands raised.
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng） | WeChat |

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While I’ve always advocated for cloud exit, if it’s about adopting a cyber bodhisattva cloud like Cloudflare, I’m all in with both hands raised. Read more

Can Luo Yonghao Save Toothpaste Cloud?

Luo Yonghao’s livestream first spent half an hour selling robot vacuums, then Luo himself belatedly appeared to read scripts selling “cloud computing” for forty minutes — before seamlessly transitioning to selling Colgate enzyme-free toothpaste — leaving viewers bewildered between toothpaste and cloud computing.
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng）| WeChat Official Account |

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Luo Yonghao’s livestream first spent half an hour selling robot vacuums, then Luo himself belatedly appeared to read scripts selling “cloud computing” for forty minutes — before seamlessly transitioning to selling Colgate enzyme-free toothpaste — leaving viewers bewildered between toothpaste and cloud computing. Read more

Analyzing Alibaba-Cloud Server Computing Cost

Alibaba-Cloud claimed major price cuts, but a detailed analysis of cloud server costs reveals that cloud computing and storage remain outrageously expensive.
By Feng Ruohang (@Vonng) | WeChat Official Account |

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Alibaba-Cloud claimed major price cuts, but a detailed analysis of cloud server costs reveals that cloud computing and storage remain outrageously expensive. Read more

Will DBAs Be Eliminated by Cloud?

Two days ago, the ninth episode of Open-Source Talks had the theme “Will DBAs Be Eliminated by Cloud?” As the host, I restrained myself from jumping into the debate throughout, so I’m writing this article to discuss this question: Will DBAs be eliminated by cloud?
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng） | WeChat |

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Two days ago, the ninth episode of Open-Source Talks had the theme “Will DBAs Be Eliminated by Cloud?” As the host, I restrained myself from jumping into the debate throughout, so I’m writing this article to discuss this question: Will DBAs be eliminated by cloud? Read more

Cloud-Exit High Availability Secret: Rejecting Complexity Masturbation

Programmers are drawn to complexity like moths to flame. The more complex the system architecture diagram, the greater the intellectual masturbation high. Steadfast resistance to this behavior is a key reason for DHH’s success in cloud-free availability.
By David Heinemeier Hansson | Translated by Vonng |

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Programmers are drawn to complexity like moths to flame. The more complex the system architecture diagram, the greater the intellectual masturbation high. Steadfast resistance to this behavior is a key reason for DHH’s success in cloud-free availability. Read more

S3: Elite to Mediocre

S3 is no longer “cheap” with the evolution of hardware, and other challengers such as cloudflare R2.
By vonng |

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S3 is no longer “cheap” with the evolution of hardware, and other challengers such as cloudflare R2. Read more

Cloud Exit FAQ: DHH Saves Millions

DHHs cloud exit journey has reached a new stage, saving nearly a million dollars so far with potential savings of nearly ten million over the next five years.
By DHH |

Author: DHH (David Heinemeier Hansson) | Original: Cloud Exit FAQ

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DHH’s cloud exit journey has reached a new stage, saving nearly a million dollars so far with potential savings of nearly ten million over the next five years. Read more

From Cost-Reduction Jokes to Real Cost Reduction and Efficiency

Alibaba-Cloud and Didi had major outages one after another. This article discusses how to move from cost-reduction jokes to real cost reduction and efficiency — what costs should we really reduce, what efficiency should we improve?
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng） | WeChat Official Account |

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Alibaba-Cloud and Didi had major outages one after another. This article discusses how to move from cost-reduction jokes to real cost reduction and efficiency — what costs should we really reduce, what efficiency should we improve? Read more

Reclaim Hardware Bonus from the Cloud

Hardware is interesting again, developments in CPUs and SSDs remain largely unnoticed by the majority of devs. A whole generation of developers is obscured by cloud hype and marketing noise.
By Ruohang Feng (@Vonng) | WeChat |

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Hardware is interesting again, developments in CPUs and SSDs remain largely unnoticed by the majority of devs. A whole generation of developers is obscured by cloud hype and marketing noise. Read more

What Can We Learn from Alibaba-Cloud's Global Outage?

Alibaba-Cloud’s epic global outage after Double 11 set an industry record. How should we evaluate this incident, and what lessons can we learn from it?
By Vonng（@Vonng） | WeChat |

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Alibaba-Cloud’s epic global outage after Double 11 set an industry record. How should we evaluate this incident, and what lessons can we learn from it? Read more

Harvesting Alibaba-Cloud Wool, Building Your Digital Homestead

Alibaba-Cloud’s Double 11 offered a great deal: 2C2G3M ECS servers for ¥99/year, low price for three years. This article shows how to use this decent ECS to build your own digital homestead.
By Vonng（@Vonng） | WeChat |

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Alibaba-Cloud’s Double 11 offered a great deal: 2C2G3M ECS servers for ¥99/year, low price for three years. This article shows how to use this decent ECS to build your own digital homestead. Read more

Cloud Computing Mudslide: Deconstructing Public Cloud with Data

Once upon a time, “going to cloud” was almost politically correct in tech circles, but few people use hard data to analyze the trade-offs involved. I’m willing to be this skeptic: let me use hard data and personal stories to explain the traps and value of public cloud rental models.
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng） | WeChat |

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Once upon a time, “going to cloud” was almost politically correct in tech circles, but few people use hard data to analyze the trade-offs involved. I’m willing to be this skeptic: let me use hard data and personal stories to explain the traps and value of public cloud rental models. Read more

Cloud Exit Odyssey: Time to Leave Cloud?

This article chronicles the complete journey of 37Signals moving off the cloud, led by DHH. Valuable reference for both cloud-bound and cloud-native enterprises.
By DHH |

Author: DHH (David Heinemeier Hansson) | Original: DHH’s Hey Blog

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This article chronicles the complete journey of 37Signals moving off the cloud, led by DHH. Valuable reference for both cloud-bound and cloud-native enterprises. Read more

DHH: Cloud-Exit Saves Over Ten Million, More Than Expected!

DHH migrated their seven cloud applications from AWS to their own hardware. 2024 is the first year of full savings realization. They’re delighted to find the savings exceed initial estimates.
By DHH | Trans: Feng Ruohang（@Vonng） | WeChat Official Account |

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DHH migrated their seven cloud applications from AWS to their own hardware. 2024 is the first year of full savings realization. They’re delighted to find the savings exceed initial estimates. Read more

FinOps: Endgame Cloud-Exit

At the SACC 2023 FinOps session, I fiercely criticized cloud vendors. This is a transcript of my speech, introducing the ultimate FinOps concept — Cloud-Exit and its implementation path.
By Ruohang Feng (@Vonng) | WeChat |

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At the SACC 2023 FinOps session, I fiercely criticized cloud vendors. This is a transcript of my speech, introducing the ultimate FinOps concept — Cloud-Exit and its implementation path. Read more

Why Isn't Cloud Computing More Profitable Than Sand Mining?

Public cloud margins worse than sand mining—why are pig-butchering schemes losing money? Resource-selling models heading toward price wars, open source alternatives breaking monopoly dreams! Service competitiveness gradually neutralized—where is the cloud computing industry heading? How did domestic cloud vendors make a business with 30-40% pure profit less profitable than sand mining?
By Vonng (@Vonng) |

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Public cloud margins worse than sand mining—why are pig-butchering schemes losing money? Resource-selling models heading toward price wars, open source alternatives breaking monopoly dreams! Service competitiveness gradually neutralized—where is the cloud computing industry heading? How did domestic cloud vendors make a business with 30-40% pure profit less profitable than sand mining? Read more

SLA: Placebo or Insurance?

SLA is a marketing tool rather than insurance. In the worst-case scenario, it’s an unavoidable loss; at best, it provides emotional comfort.
By Ruohang Feng (@Vonng) | WeChat |

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SLA is a marketing tool rather than insurance. In the worst-case scenario, it’s an unavoidable loss; at best, it provides emotional comfort. Read more

EBS: Pig Slaughter Scam

The real business model of cloud: “Cheap” EC2/S3 to attract customers, and fleece with “Expensive” EBS/RDS
By Ruohang Feng (@Vonng) | WeChat |

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The real business model of cloud: “Cheap” EC2/S3 to attract customers, and fleece with “Expensive” EBS/RDS Read more

Garbage QCloud CDN: From Getting Started to Giving Up?

I originally believed that at least in IaaS fundamentals — storage, compute, and networking — public cloud vendors could still make significant contributions. However, my personal experience with Tencent Cloud CDN shook that belief: domestic cloud vendors’ products and services are truly unbearable.
By Vonng（@Vonng） | WeChat |

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I originally believed that at least in IaaS fundamentals — storage, compute, and networking — public cloud vendors could still make significant contributions. However, my personal experience with Tencent Cloud CDN shook that belief: domestic cloud vendors’ products and services are truly unbearable. Read more

Refuting "Why You Still Shouldn't Hire a DBA"

Guo Degang has a comedy routine: “Say I tell a rocket scientist, your rocket is no good, the fuel is wrong. I think it should burn wood, better yet coal, and it has to be premium coal, not washed coal. If that scientist takes me seriously, he loses.”
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng） | WeChat Official Account |

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Guo Degang has a comedy routine: “Say I tell a rocket scientist, your rocket is no good, the fuel is wrong. I think it should burn wood, better yet coal, and it has to be premium coal, not washed coal. If that scientist takes me seriously, he loses.” Read more

Paradigm Shift: From Cloud to Local-First

Cloud databases’ exorbitant markups—sometimes 10x or more—are undoubtedly a scam for users outside the applicable spectrum. But we can dig deeper: why are public clouds, especially cloud databases, like this? And based on their underlying logic, make predictions about the industry’s future.
By Vonng (@Vonng) |

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Cloud databases’ exorbitant markups—sometimes 10x or more—are undoubtedly a scam for users outside the applicable spectrum. But we can dig deeper: why are public clouds, especially cloud databases, like this? And based on their underlying logic, make predictions about the industry’s future. Read more

Are Cloud Databases an IQ Tax?

Winter is coming, tech giants are laying off workers entering cost-reduction mode. Can cloud databases, the number one public cloud cash cow, still tell their story? The money you spend on cloud databases for one year is enough to buy several or even dozens of higher-performing servers. Are you paying an IQ tax by using cloud databases?
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng）| WeChat Original | Vonng Blog |

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Winter is coming, tech giants are laying off workers entering cost-reduction mode. Can cloud databases, the number one public cloud cash cow, still tell their story? The money you spend on cloud databases for one year is enough to buy several or even dozens of higher-performing servers. Are you paying an IQ tax by using cloud databases? Read more

Cloud RDS: From Database Drop to Exit

I recently witnessed a live cloud database drop-and-run incident. This article discusses how to handle accidentally deleted data when using PostgreSQL in production environments.
By Feng Ruohang（@Vonng） | WeChat |

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I recently witnessed a live cloud database drop-and-run incident. This article discusses how to handle accidentally deleted data when using PostgreSQL in production environments. Read more

Is DBA Still a Good Job?

Ant Financial had a self-deprecating joke: besides regulation, only DBAs could bring down Alipay. Although DBA sounds like a profession with glorious history and dim prospects, who knows if it might become trendy again after a few terrifying major cloud database incidents?
By Feng Ruohang (@Vonng) | WeChat Official Account | Zhihu |

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Ant Financial had a self-deprecating joke: besides regulation, only DBAs could bring down Alipay. Although DBA sounds like a profession with glorious history and dim prospects, who knows if it might become trendy again after a few terrifying major cloud database incidents? Read more