When a web service grows to the point of handling millions of user queries every second, even an initially well-architected system can begin to buckle under the load.
The high-traffic user database, originally built on top of a custom framework designed around MySQL, started to show its age.
After evaluating different solutions, the decision was made to combine MySQL with Vitess for better performance, reliability, and future flexibility.
This article discusses the reasons behind this decision and the steps taken to scale reads to meet the massive demand.