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How We've Scaled Dropbox

Stanford · talk · Watch on YouTube

Distributed systemsDatabases & storageCloud, DevOps & reliability

What it is

Dropbox engineer Kevin Modzelewski gives a Stanford colloquium on Dropbox's history and the technical problems it faced scaling, including detailed database schema decisions.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended as a detailed, candid case study of scaling a real system from zero users to millions.

  • 5 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2023

What HN commenters said

  1. “I found the Dropbox lecture [1] at Stanford one of the most riveting things ever.”

    Riveting look at the technology behind Dropbox.

    fermienrico, 2018-09 · Strong recommendation · in “How we rolled out one of the largest Python 3 migrations”

  2. “It is incredibly detailed (down to the exact sql schema they use for file metadata etc).”

    Incredibly detailed talk on Dropbox architecture evolution, down to SQL schema.

    rawnlq, 2014-10 · Recommendation · in “Facebook's software architecture”

  3. “there are a lot of good talks on youtube from places like dropbox and facebook that explain the problem and solution.”

    Case study on scaling problems and solutions at Dropbox.

    bradgnar, 2017-07 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Best-architected open-source business applications worth studying?”

  4. “You might enjoy this talk”

    Shows Dropbox is far more than a GUI on rsync.

    jesseendahl, 2018-03 · Recommendation · in “Congrats Dropbox”

  5. “Here's some of my favorite talks that go from 0 users to millions.”

    Talk going from zero users to millions.

    testb, 2018-06 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: Most effective path to become a solid systems practitioner?”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: scaling, dropbox, databases, system architecture, mysql

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